"The way Westar Energy runs its coal plants in Kansas unnecessarily costs consumers millions of dollars a year through an obscure, if common, practice known as self-committing generation."
On June 26th, Governor Janet Mills signed new legislation to broaden customer access to net metering (known in Maine as net energy billing) and to promote distributed energy generation, including through competitive procurements for long-term contracts with the state’s transmission and distribution utilities.
A study examining the impact on property values where commercial wind farms have gone up in Kansas found no statistically significant changes in aggregate rural home values in a county within the three years of a wind development.
A proposal making its way through the Iowa legislature would impose new monthly fees on homes and businesses that own solar power systems, adding years to the payoff period before customers' utility-bill savings would cover the cost of adding solar.
The Green New Deal that some Democrats are now championing is unlike anything this country has ever done before. But scientists have been studying policies like these for decades. And their research can tell us a bit about what might happen if we pass this sweeping new vision for climate action and economic equality.
Though still an industrial metropolis, Chicago is actively becoming a clean energy innovation hub for microgrids, electric cars and next generation battery research. But the startup momentum in the energy sector isn’t matched with enough venture capital enthusiasm.
The Green New Deal means different things to different people. In some ways, that’s part of its appeal. On the other hand, a Green New Deal can’t mean anything anyone wants it to, or it will come to mean nothing at all.
