News

Advanced Energy Economy Urges U.S. Dept. of Energy to Reject Request for Emergency Support of Coal, Nuclear Plants

Advanced Energy Roadmap Shows How Next Governor of Illinois Can Drive the Economy By Making Energy Used by Households and Businesses Secure, Clean, and Affordable 

Virginia Advanced Energy Economy's Executive Director Harry Godfrey makes the case that the recently passed SB966 has the potential to dramatically increase renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment, leading to new jobs across the Commonwealth. But, he says, the responsibility rests "on all of us, including elected leaders in Virginia, to hold the utilities to account and ensure they live up to the potential of this legislation."

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2018 — Today, national business group Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) issued the following reaction to news about FirstEnergy filing a formal request for federal emergency support of unprofitable coal and nuclear plants, under the rarely used U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) section 202(c) authority:“Advanced Energy Economy calls on Secretary Perry to reject FirstEnergy’s blatant appeal for a multi-billion dollar bailout of uneconomic and unnecessary power plants,” said Malcolm Woolf, senior vice president of policy for AEE, a national business organization. “This outrageous attempt to evade established market procedures is unprecedented. FirstEnergy is asking the Secretary of Energy to exercise authority that is reserved for an emergency threatening national security just to salvage power plants that are losing money for their owners and costing money for consumers. PJM currently has generating capacity well in excess of that needed to keep the lights on. FirstEnergy’s request attempts to short-circuit PJM’s well-established process for analyzing the reliability impacts of generation retirements, and ignores FERC's ruling earlier this year finding that no emergency exists that would justify providing special treatment to coal and nuclear power plants in our competitive electricity markets. We fully expect Secretary Perry to reject this application as an inappropriate use of his emergency powers, just as he did last year when Murray Energy asked him to keep coal plants open.”

 AEE Points Congress, Administration toward Modernizing U.S. Energy Infrastructure for Economic Growth 

The Roanoke Times published an opinion piece urging Va. Governor Northam to seize a unique opportunity to appoint the next SCC commissioner. The piece was authored by Harrison Godfrey Godfrey, Executive Director of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy, a coalition of businesses that seek to make the Commonwealth’s energy more secure, clean, and affordable (and state chapter of AEE). Here is an excerpt — click link to read the entire piece.Gov. Ralph Northam has an opportunity — through a rare vacancy on the State Corporation Commission (SCC) — to unleash innovation and accelerate economic growth in the commonwealth. We urge him to seize it.

 

AEE Applauds Passage of Legislation to Expand Investment in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Virginia

 

SmartGrid Today reported Advanced Energy Economy's announcement that executives of nine market-leading firms joined its board of directors to support the national business group's efforts to accelerate the growth of secure, clean, affordable energy in the US. The nation's advanced energy market totals over $200 billion in revenue, about equal to pharmaceutical manufacturing and approaching wholesale consumer electronics – and supports over 3 million US workers, AEE said.The AEE Institute, the educational and research affiliate of AEE, added two new board members, too: