John Hennessy III,
P.E.
A train hauling two million gallons of crude oil from North Dakota had exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. Now regulators had to assure Americans a similar disaster wouldn’t happen south of the border, where the U.S. oil boom is sending highly volatile crude oil every day over aging, often defective rails in vulnerable railcars.
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE
Over the past decade, distributed solar photovoltaics (DPV) have experienced unprecedented growth. DPV is now on track to achieve significant scale in many segments of the U.S. market…Supportive federal, state, and local policies have to date spurred DPV’s development in many U.S. markets. However, many of these policies were designed for early market support of an emerging technology, not as long-term solutions. Thus as the DPV market has grown, so too has conflict around early-market policies. In many states, regulators and policy makers are now reexamining the policy environment as solar adoption reaches net energy metering (NEM) market caps or incentive program funding is exhausted.
NEW YORK STATE ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (NYSERDNA)
In recognition of the increased risk of accidents and public concerns associated with the significant volume of crude oil transported through New York State, on January 28, 2014, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo issued Executive Order 125 (EO 125), directing state agencies to immediately conduct a coordinated review of New York State’s crude oil incident prevention and response capacity.
ERNEST ORLANDO LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY
End-use energy efficiency is increasingly being relied upon as a resource for meeting electricity and natural gas utility system needs within the United States. There is a direct connection between the maturation of energy efficiency as a resource and the need for consistent, high-quality data and reporting of efficiency program costs and impacts. To support this effort, LBNL initiated the Cost of Saved Energy Project (CSE Project) and created a Demand-Side Management (DSM) Program Impacts Database to provide a resource for policy makers, regulators, and the efficiency industry as a whole.
UPPER GREAT PLAINS TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE
Drilling shale oil wells generates a large amount of truck traffic. Heavy loads required by drilling activities damage local roads, resulting in the need for several hundred million dollars for repair and maintenance. To support logistical activities for efficient energy development, a proactive approach is required for allocating investments for paving road and timely maintenance. Forecasting load impact on a road network is essential for estimating pavement and repair costs to support energy logistics.
Bowdoin’s new solar panel complex — which includes a field of panels at the former Navy base and panels atop the Watson, Farley and Greason athletic buildings — went online in October. More than six times the size of the next largest existing solar project in Maine, this system will provide about 8% of the College’s electricity. SolarCity will install an additional 12-kW system on the new residence hall at 52 Harpswell Road later this year.
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ENVIRONMENT AMERICA
Nationally, solar PV capacity increased at a rate of 77 percent per year from 2010 to 2013. If solar installations continue to increase at less than one-third of that annual rate of growth (22 percent) between 2013 and 2030, America would have enough solar energy to generate 10 percent of its electricity.
Ever since Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla battled it out during the War of the Currents in the late 19th century, electricity has been a central part of life in America. We are constantly connected to the power grid, which keeps our food refrigerated, our homes heated, our computers running and our rooms lit. Power lines, transmission stations and power plants have become a part of the landscape — to the point that we hardly notice them.
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PRESIDENT’S STATE, LOCAL, AND TRIBAL LEADERS TASK FORCE ON CLIMATE PREPAREDNESS AND RESILIENCE
At state, local, tribal, and territorial levels, leaders are making bold decisions on ways to invest in more resilient infrastructure, revise land use, update building codes, and adjust natural resource management and other practices to improve the resilience of their communities to climate impacts. The Federal Government has a critical role to play in supporting these efforts by ensuring that Federal policies and programs incorporate climate change, incentivize and remove barriers to community resilience, and provide the information and assistance communities need to understand and prepare for climate risks.
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