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North Dakota Senate approves change to wind tax

Bismarck Tribune | Posted on February 12, 2019

The North Dakota Senate voted Thursday to change how wind tax revenue is distributed, sending more future wind revenue to the state general fund rather than counties.Senate Bill 2331 directs one-third of wind tax revenue to the state and two-thirds to counties for wind projects constructed after Dec. 31, 2020.Currently, all of North Dakota’s wind energy tax revenue stays with counties that produce the energy, while the state shares in tax revenue from coal and oil.The goal of the bill is to create a level playing field with other energy-producing facilities, said Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger. It doesn’t raise the tax on wind, but redirects where it goes.


Pennsylvania halts permits for natural gas pipelines

Penn Live | Posted on February 12, 2019

Pennsylvania is halting construction permits for natural gas pipelines operated by Texas-based Energy Transfer LP, as the governor on Friday said the company has failed to respect the state’s laws and communities.The state Department of Environmental Protection said Energy Transfer is not fixing problems related to an explosion last year, and piled yet another penalty onto a company project in the state.State agencies already have imposed millions of dollars in fines and several temporary shutdown orders on Energy Transfer projects, while a county prosecutor is demanding documents from the company.


Keystone Pipeline Is Likely Source of Oil Spill, Says TransCanada

Bloomberg | Posted on February 12, 2019

TransCanada Corp. said its Keystone pipeline, which carries Canadian crude to the U.S., was likely the source of an oil spill in Missouri that prompted the company to shut a segment of the line.The disruption comes as U.S. Gulf Coast refiners seek alternatives to heavy crude after sanctions on Venezuela effectively cut off access to the country’s oil. Canada’s oil-sands crude serves as a similar substitute, but Alberta has struggled with pipeline bottlenecks that have forced rationing on export pipelines and prompted the province to impose mandatory production curtailments.


A "green" new deal

Storm Lake Times | Posted on February 11, 2019

A lot of people, including presidential candidates visiting Iowa, are throwing around the idea of a “Green New Deal” to confront climate change, as polls indicate more Americans are thinking about how they can help turn back the devastation that Earth’s warming promises. It’s easy to support until the specifics come down. Nobody really knows what such a program entails. But we hear of increasing taxes on the uber wealthy in just about every way you can imagine to pay for a massive national effort to create jobs around “green” initiatives. Iowa is the perfect place to define what we’re talking about. We generate more electricity per capita from wind than any other state thanks to one of the earliest Renewable Energy Portfolios in the nation. We can build rural communities and jobs through renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. There are a lot more well-paid technicians tending wind towers around there than coal-fired power plants or natural gas plants. Iowa has as much solar energy potential as Florida.(Why is an oil pipeline favored over a transmission line that runs renewable energy?)


Wind Farm Developer Challenging Denial of Permits

Lexington Herald Leader | Posted on February 7, 2019

The company proposing to develop a controversial wind farm in Burleigh County is appealing a decision denying it permits for the project. Pure New Energy USA has filed an appeal with the South Central Judicial District Court challenging the Burleigh County Commission's recent decision to deny 30 special use permits. The Bismarck Tribune says the company argues it has "met any and all requirements for issuance" of the permits for the Burleigh-Emmons Wind Farm.The county commission last month voted 4-1 to deny the permits in Morton Township as recommended by the county planning and zoning board.


The last five years were the hottest ever recorded

National Geographic | Posted on February 7, 2019

The planet is warming up, and there’s no sign of stopping. The last five years—from 2014 to 2018—are the warmest years ever recorded in the 139 years that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has tracked global heat. And 2018 was the fourth hottest year ever recorded.


New York Just Sued The Trump EPA For Reversing Obama-Era Air Pollution Rule

Huffington Post | Posted on February 6, 2019

New York and five other states are suing the Trump administration in a bid to force the Environmental Protection Agency to take stronger steps to curb air pollution that blows across state lines. The so-called “good neighbor” provision of the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to police air pollution in certain states to ensure that it doesn’t blight downwind states. Under President Barack Obama, the EPA determined the existing standards for limiting smog-forming ozone pollution fell short and needed to be toughened.Last June, the EPA proposed a rule reversing that determination, a move undercutting more aggressive enforcement of the Clean Air Act. The EPA finalized the rule last month. The newly elected New York Attorney General Letitia James cried foul, filing a lawsuit arguing the EPA is violating the Clean Air Act by “failing to require any further control of power plants and other sources of smog pollution in states upwind” of her state.The attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey joined the suit, as did New York City.


Researchers: No Evidence Wind Turbine Sound Poses Threat To Public Health

Iowa Public Radio | Posted on February 6, 2019

A team of Iowa researchers has concluded that there's no actionable evidence that the sound of wind turbines is a danger to public. Instead, the report authors found that reported symptoms of hearing loss or poor sleep are more likely related to people’s attitudes and beliefs about wind development. Residents in areas seeing wind development sometimes report headaches, sleep disturbance, hearing loss and other symptoms. A team of researchers from the University of Iowa, the Iowa Policy Project and The Iowa Environmental Council explored potential causes of these symptoms. Based on an overview of peer-reviewed studies, they found that there is not suffiecient evidence to show sound or sound pressure from turbines is a directly causing adverse health effects. 


Long-awaited Oregon carbon cap bill is released

Capital Press | Posted on February 6, 2019

After nearly a year of work by a legislative committee, a bill released Thursday afternoon outlines how Oregon would drastically cut its greenhouse gas emissions and become the second state to implement a cap and trade system. The anticipated legislation — criticized before it even appeared — instantly became the talk of the Capitol, though many legislators weren’t exactly certain what had emerged. At 98 pages, the legislation is more something to devour after dinner with a bottle of wine than something to skim through between committee hearings.Lawmakers, lobbyists and nonpartisan legislative analysts alike scrambled to read the proposal, what is called the Oregon Climate Action Program, branded as Legislative Concept 894.


Surge in wind power set to surpass hydroelectric power in U.S.

Digital Journal | Posted on February 4, 2019

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Short term energy outlook for 2019 this month - and it's good news for the U.S. electrical grid. even as coal-fired power plants decline. In 2019, a surge in wind power is set to surpass the nation's longstanding renewable mainstay, hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power generation - a renewable energy source, has been around for at least 100 years, but it is also seeing slow growth due to permitting restrictions and protections of wildlife. In 2017, hydro made up 7.4 percent of total electrical generation. Hydropower was 7.0 percent of total generation in 2018 and EIA forecasts that it will be about the same in 2019 and in 2020.As for solar power, the EIA estimates about 5 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity will be added in 2019 and 6 GW will be added in 2020. The EIA expects nearly 9 GW of small-scale solar PV capacity to be installed during 2019–20, mostly in the residential sector.

 


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