Advanced Energy Perspectives

After weeks of discussion, the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted to advance the nominations of Norman Bay and Cheryl LaFleur as commissioners to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

At the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention this week, Warren Buffett briefly forgot how many billions of dollars his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, has invested in solar and wind projects. As Bloomberg reports, Buffett “had to rely on a deputy, Greg Abel, to remind him just how much they’d committed.” To date, that number rests at $15 billion. But, “without missing a beat,” Bloomberg reports, “Buffett responded: ‘There’s another $15 billion ready to go, as far as I’m concerned.’” You go, Warren!

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) have been tremendously successful in driving both renewable energy investment and deployment of renewable resources in the U.S.  Two-thirds of all non-hydro renewable capacity additions since 1998 – 46 gigawatts – have happened in states with RPS policies. Manufacturing facilities for wind power have cropped up across the country while utilities have seen the costs of renewable power plummet. Through this process, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has done numerous reports on RPS policies to help policymakers evaluate their effectiveness.

This is the third in a series of blog posts on EPA’s forthcoming rules on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from existing power plants – known as 111(d) for the section of the Clean Air Act under which the rules are being developed. In this series we have been discussing how 111d offers us a unique opportunity to modernize the grid for the 21^st Century while meeting GHG reduction targets. We have already discussed how we can create a high-performing grid that is efficient, clean, affordable, reliable and resilient, by making investments in advanced energy technologies and services. In this post we argue that an important way to achieve these objectives is to create a customer-focused grid, which will require modernizing not just the physical grid, but the way utilities are regulated.

This week, the top story centered on EPA’s release of its draft carbon emissions rule for existing power plants. We have already covered that story in depth in this week’s Federal Update and last week’s News Update, and we will continue to follow media coverage. In the meantime, here are some of this week’s other top stories.