In The New York Times on Friday, I wrote about the organizers of California’s No on Proposition 23 campaign resurrecting their coalition to press for green energy policies in the Golden State and Washington: George P. Shultz, the Republican former secretary of state, and Thomas F. Steyer, the Democratic hedge fund billionaire, are reviving the [...]
Archive for the ‘green policy’ Category
Prop 23 coalition revives campaign for green policies
Posted in energy, environment, green policy, Proposition 23, renewable energy, tagged Thomas Steyer on March 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
PG&E to let customers disable their smart meters
Posted in green policy, PG&E, smart grid, smart meters on March 28, 2011 | 3 Comments »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Over the past year, a revolt against the rollout of utility Pacific Gas & Electric’s smart meters has swept through Northern California as some customers claimed the devices’ wireless transmission of electricity data was harming their health. In response, city councils in a number of [...]
California billionaire Tom Steyer takes on the Koch brothers
Posted in climate change, energy, global warming, green policy, Proposition 23, renewable energy, tagged Thomas F. Steyer on March 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In The New York Times on Tuesday, I wrote about the strategy of San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer, the leader of the campaign against Proposition 23 last year, to fight efforts to restrict the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions: Is Thomas F. Steyer the anti-Koch? For years, Mr. Steyer, a billionaire San Francisco [...]
Chicago to build electric car charging network
Posted in electric cars, green cars, green grid, green policy on February 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Better Place I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. First Chicago gets Rahm Emanuel, now electric cars. Well, at least an electric car infrastructure. In a move that indicates electric cars won’t just be a phenomenon of Greater Portlandia, utility Exelon and the city will roll out 280 charging stations across [...]
Report: Californians paying too high a price for green energy
Posted in alternative energy, green policy, PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison on February 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Are Californians forking over too much green for green energy? A new report from a ratepayers advocacy group found that the price of electricity in 59 percent of renewable energy contracts signed by the state’s three big utilities exceeded the market price referent, or MPR [...]
California greens its grid with energy storage
Posted in energy, green policy, smart grid, tagged Cal ISO, energy storage on February 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. In just about every story on renewable energy, there’s a familiar cast of characters: green power developers, utilities, and sundry state and federal regulators. But there’s one key player that often lurks in the background – the grid operator. In the Golden State, most of [...]
Why the green energy revolution needs the smart grid
Posted in alternative energy, environment, green policy, green tech, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged Sacramento Municipal Utility District on November 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. If you want a birds-eye view of the future of power, scramble up to the roof of a 562,089-square-foot warehouse in Ontario, a city that sits in the smoggy heart of Southern California’s Inland Empire east of Los Angeles. On a roof [...]
China syndrome: California’s Solyndra to close solar factory
Posted in energy, environment, green policy, green tech, solar energy, Solyndra, tagged President Obama on November 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
photo: White House In Wednesday’s New York Times, I have an exlusive about Silicon Valley solar startup Solyndra’s move to shutter a factory and lay off workers just weeks after it opened a state-of the art plant built with a half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee: SAN FRANCISCO — Solyndra, a Silicon Valley solar-panel maker that won [...]
Megawatt mania: California approves seventh Big Solar farm
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, global warming, green policy, green tech, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Tessera Solar, tagged California Energy Commission on October 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In a follow up to my story in Friday’s New York Times on the beginning of a solar building boom in the desert Southwest, I take a look at California regulators’ approval of the seventh Big Solar farm in two months, the 663.5-megawatt Calico project: In an article in Friday’s paper, I [...]
Desert solar boom begins, may be short-lived
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, energy, environment, global warming, green policy, green tech, renewable energy, solar energy, Solar Millennium, solar power plants, Tessera Solar on October 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In Friday’s New York Times, I write about the beginning of the long-awaited solar boom in the Mojave Desert and how it may well be short-lived if crucial federal incentives for renewable energy are allowed to expire in the coming months: NIPTON, Calif. — The long-promised solar building boom in the desert [...]
