News

Politico outlined FERC’s options for preventing future grid failure in Texas following the February winter blackout, quoting AEE’s Jeff Dennis on Chairman Glick’s expected course of action. Read excerpts below and the full story here (sub req).

Texas' second major power failures in a decade could spur FERC to take the rare step of ordering new reliability standards, experts say.

Florida Daily published AEE’s Ebo Entsuah's opinion piece on Florida’s opportunity to bolster economic recovery through championing advanced energy. Read excerpts below and the full piece here.

As Florida works toward economic recovery from the crisis wrought by COVID-19, we have an opportunity to champion something that will bring in jobs and jump-start our economy: deploying advanced energy, like energy efficiency, solar, energy storage and electric vehicles...

Virginia Mercury quoted AEE’s Harry Godfrey on the General Assembly’s failure to fund an electric vehicle rebate program. Read excerpts below and the full story here.

While Virginia’s General Assembly has committed to adopt stricter transportation emissions standards by 2025 that will encourage more widespread use of electric vehicles, lawmakers’ final budget includes no funding for a rebate program intended to bring down the vehicles’ cost for consumers...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2021— Today, national business group Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) reacted to the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS) decision to procure internal combustion engine fleets rather than all electric vehicles for its next-gen strategy.

"The decision by USPS to start off its next-generation delivery vehicles with last-generation technology is a missed opportunity," said Leah Rubin Shen, federal policy director at national business group Advanced Energy Economy. 

The Washington Post highlighted AEE member Highland Electric Transportation’s innovative electric school bus contract with the Montgomery County school district in Maryland, quoting HET CEO, Duncan McIntyre, cost benefits of electric buses. Read excerpts below and the full story here (sub req). This story was also covered in Green Tech Media and Axios.

Hundreds of electric school buses are about to hit the roads in Montgomery County in an effort to cut tailpipe emissions that warm the planet and can affect student health.

Washington Examiner detailed Highland Electric Transportation’s school bus electrification contract with Montgomery County Public Schools, quoting AEE’s Nat Kreamer on President Biden’s larger plan to electrify U.S. school buses. Read excerpts below and the full story here.

The Montgomery County public school district in Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., is switching its bus fleet over to electric models at no additional cost in a first-of-its-kind move that could serve as a model for President Biden.

Bloomberg News quoted AEE on the clean energy impact of Highland Electric Transportation’s school bus electrification contract with Maryland's Montgomery County Board of Education. Read excerpts below and the full story here (sub req).

A school system outside Washington is poised to become the nation’s biggest operator of electric school buses... The Board of Education in Maryland’s Montgomery County voted unanimously on Tuesday evening to approve a 16-year, $169 million contract to lease 326 buses, part of a plan that could result in the county replacing its entire 1,422-bus fleet over the next two decades.

Politico's Morning Energy examined the Texas energy crisis, quoting AEE’s Jeff Dennis on what it will mean for the future of grid infrastructure. Read excerpts below and the full Morning Energy piece here.

THE EYES ON TEXAS: Infrastructure was already promising to play a prominent role in Washington in 2021, but the ongoing Texas energy crisis has injected fresh attention into how crucial the sector is to basic, every day tasks.

Indianapolis Star-Tribune examines unprecedented weather-related blackouts occurring across Texas, analyzing the likelihood of similar outages in Indiana. The article quotes AEE's Leah Rubin Shen on the benefits of grid diversification and the robust weatherization technologies available for wind turbines. Read excerpts below and the full IndyStar story here.

The same winter storm that blew more than 8 inches of snow into Indianapolis on Monday hit Texas — and hit it hard. The southern state reached record-breaking cold temperatures and residents cranking up the heat overwhelmed power generators. Millions of households lost electricity, and many have now been without power and heat for days. Predictions on when it will be restored are uncertain…