News

The Roanoke Times published this op-ed by Virginia Advanced Energy Economy's Harrison Godfrey, supporting Governor Northam’s veto of HB. 2611 (an attempt to restrict Virginia's ability to participate in market trading systems) and encouraging line-item veto of a similar restriction in the budget. See excerpts below and the entire Roanoke Times op-ed here:

On March 14, Gov. Northam issued one of his first vetoes this year. HB. 2611 would have made it harder for the Commonwealth to establish cost-effective, free-market emission rules for power plants. By vetoing it and the corresponding budget language, which we presume he will address, the governor did all Virginians, especially those living paycheck to paycheck, a favor.

This Washington Post op-ed covers how the Virginia State Corporation Commission denied Walmart’s request to buy renewable energy generated by a third-party (not one of two regulated utilities) despite the fact that job creators across the commonwealth have espoused support for state policy enabling greater customer choice. The article references AEE's 2018 Virginia Jobs Fact Sheet. See excerpts below and the entire Washington Post op-ed here:

Sustainability and profitability are not mutually exclusive. More and more American companies are demanding renewable energy options to power their businesses. You can be sure that these demands are motivated by economics, not philanthropy…

This Windpower Engineering & Development piece highlights AEE's report with commentary from AEE CEO, Nat Kreamer, on the rapid growth for advanced energy jobs as of 2018 and the expected increase in employment in the coming year. See excerpts below and the entire Windpower Engineering story here.

With 3.5 million jobs, advanced energy industry employs more U.S. workers than retail stores, twice as many as hotels and motels, three times coal and oil industries

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20, 2019 – Today national business group Advanced Energy Economy released a fact sheet showing that the advanced energy industry employed 3.5 million U.S. workers in 2018, an increase of 125,000 jobs over 2017. Advanced energy employment grew 4 percent year-over-year, more than twice as fast as the overall U.S. employment growth rate of 1.5 percent. Employers expect to add 6 percent more advanced energy jobs in the coming year.

This piece by the Washington Examiner discusses how the Green New Deal is all but impractical without addressing how critical transmission lines are to its implementation. The AEE perspective is given by Managing Director and General Counsel Jeff Dennis. See excerpts below and the entire Washington Examiner story here:

This Windpower Engineering & Development piece covers Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak’s decision to join a growing number of states in entering into the U.S. Climate Alliance, quoting AEE's Ray Fakhoury. See excerpts below and the entire Windpower Engineering story here: 

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak announced that the state would join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of state governors pledging to reduce carbon emissions and support clean, renewable energy growth throughout the country.

Utility Dive published this commentary by AEE Director Caitlin Marquis and Electricity Consumers Resource Council President and CEO Devin Hartman on a consumer-focused approach to reliability and resilience in energy policy, based on the evolving characteristics of the power industry. See the entire Utility Dive article here. 

The past two years of federal energy policy debates have focused on two key related areas: reliability and resilience. For more years than that, public debate has centered on the potential challenges associated with the retirement of traditional grid resources like coal and nuclear plants. Throughout all of this, the consumer voice has largely been ignored, instead overruled by incumbent electricity generators and political interests.

This Yale Climate Connections post looks at how the grid can best prepare to integrate electric vehicles (EVs)), with perspective by AEE's Matt Stanberry, See excerpts below and read the entire Yale Climate Connection story here, which includes an excellent summary of Con Edison's EV pilot programs.

Some Americans appear increasingly ready to give up their gas cars for electric vehicles. But are the country’s electric grids prepared for them?

The question is a critical one in the quest to address climate change, because transportation is now the single largest sector contributing to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. EVs are widely viewed as a key way to help change that.

Forbes featured AEE’s graphic of Performance-Based Regulation by state in this story about new research on how various governments are exploring the best policies to effectively deploy more distributed energy resources. See excerpts below and read the entire Forbes piece here: