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Jeff St. John

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Canary Media: California Could Cut Utility Bills With Distributed Energy. Why Isn’t It?

Posted by Jeff St. John on Sep 10, 2024

Canary Media reports on California’s energy affordability challenges, how they relate to expanding the state's power grid, and the potential role of distributed energy resources (DERs). The article quotes United's Edson Perez, who says that leveraging DERs could provide significant cost savings and improve grid resilience if given proper policy support.

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Topics: State Policy, United In The News, California, Edson Perez

Canary Media: California Electric Bill Relief Plan Would Gut Low-Income Energy Programs

Posted by Jeff St. John on Aug 29, 2024

Canary Media reports on California AB 3121, an electricity affordability package that proposes significant cuts to critical energy programs. The article quotes United's Edson Perez, saying that these cuts would undermine distributed energy resource programs that help both rural and disadvantaged communities. 

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Topics: State Policy, United In The News, California, Edson Perez

Canary Media: Prices Just Spiked in the Biggest US Power Market. Blame the Grid Backlog.

Posted by Jeff St. John on Aug 6, 2024

Canary Media discusses a recent spike in electricity prices by PJM, the largest power market in the country. The article quotes United's Jon Gordon, who speaks to how PJM's interconnection queue delays are exacerbating market issues and negatively impacting energy costs.

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Topics: Wholesale Markets, United In The News, Jon Gordon

Canary Media: Supreme Court Decision Threatens Biden’s ​‘Whole of Government’ Climate Plan

Posted by Jeff St. John on Jul 3, 2024

Canary Media reports on the consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron doctrine, quoting United's Jeremy McDiarmid on the decision's implications for key aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act.

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Topics: Federal Policy, United In The News, Jeremy McDiarmid

Canary Media: A Western US Energy Market Would Boost Clean Energy. Will It Happen?

Posted by Jeff St. John on Jun 10, 2024

Canary Media covers recent developments, potential benefits, and regulatory hurdles related to the creation of a regional Western RTO. The story quotes United's Brian Turner, who highlights the importance of establishing a cohesive energy market in the West. 

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Topics: United In The News, Western RTO, California, Brian Turner

Canary Media: California Budget Cuts Could Decimate Key Virtual Power Plant Programs

Posted by Jeff St. John on Jun 5, 2024

Canary Media reports on California's proposed budget cuts to critical clean energy programs that would prevent blackouts and promote a cleaner, more resilient energy grid. United's Edson Perez is quoted urging policymakers to reconsider these funding cuts and emphasizing the importance of these programs. 

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Topics: United In The News, California, Edson Perez

Canary Media: New Clean Power Rules Force Utilities to Take Clean Energy Seriously

Posted by Jeff St. John on Apr 25, 2024

Canary Media reports on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rules pushing utilities to retrofit fossil-fuel plants with new technologies or swap them out for clean energy alternatives, quoting United's President and CEO Heather O'Neill on the opportunity the rules present for utilities to pivot to advanced energy solutions.

On Thursday, the Biden administration issued rules to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and pollution from U.S. power plants, while top officials weighed in with an important message: Clean energy is more than ready to supplant the fossil-fueled power plants the new regulations are intended to curb.

The long-awaited rules, the result of nearly a year of work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will require individual states to craft plans for ensuring that coal-fired plants slated to stay open past 2039 control 90 percent of their carbon pollution from 2032 onward. Newly built baseload” fossil-gas-fired power plants that operate more than 40 percent of the year must do the same.

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Topics: Federal Policy, United In The News, Heather O'Neill

Canary Media: Bill Would End California Experiment with Income-Based Electric Bills

Posted by Jeff St. John on Feb 7, 2024

Canary Media reports on the California lawmakers’ efforts to overturn the California Public Utilities Commission’s plan to propose income-graduated fixed fees with Assembly Bill 1999. The article quotes Edson Perez and Brian Turner on how ratepayers will be affected by this and the consequences of this fixed charge.
 
Of all the ways California regulators are proposing to rein in fast-rising electric utility rates, few are as controversial as the plan to charge customers for electricity service based on how much money they make.
 
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Topics: United In The News, California, Brian Turner, Edson Perez

Canary Media: FERC takes a big step to get more clean energy on the US grid

Posted by Jeff St. John on Jul 31, 2023

Canary Media examines the newest approval of reforms by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to improve the efficiency of interconnection projects, quoting Caitlin Marquis on the anticipated positive and negative impacts of the commission's ruling.

The U.S. has far more clean energy projects seeking to connect to the grid than utilities and grid operators can handle. It’s a crisis that has been decades in the making, but one that must be resolved in the next few years if the country is to meet its climate goals.

Last Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a sweeping set of reforms to address one facet of that crisis: the need to streamline and modernize the rules and processes that govern how power projects interconnect to the nation’s transmission grids.

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Topics: United In The News, Caitlin Marquis, FERC

Canary Media: Clean energy dodges a bullet in the Texas legislature

Posted by Jeff St. John on May 31, 2023

Canary Media reports on the outcome of the recently concluded Texas legislative session, quoting Matthew Boms on how the legislature avoided passing bills that would have derailed the state's clean energy industry's efforts.

The best thing that Doug Lewin, president of Texas-based energy consultancy Stoic Energy, can say about the just-concluded Texas legislative session is that it could have been much, much worse. 

Lawmakers failed to pass bills that would have helped stabilize and clean up the Texas grid, but at least they also, at the last minute, avoided passing bills that would have crushed the state’s clean energy industry.

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Topics: United In The News, Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance, Texas, Matthew Boms