Energy Law

Spring is here, and grass and flowers aren't the only green things sprouting: Clean energy conferences are popping up all over.

White House aides Larry Summers and Carol Browner insisted that the administration was willing to bend on several key issues, including the mechanism for pricing carbon and increased domestic energy exploration. But both said the president would not budge when it comes to placing a first-ever price on domestic greenhouse gas emissions. (quoting E&E News PM)

A recent federal government report finds that climate change is already affecting the ability of federal agencies to fulfill their missions and recommends a new national strategy for climate change adaptation. The progress report from the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force?led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?concludes that the U.S. government must adapt to climate change and build resilience, but it finds significant gaps in the government's approach to these challenges.

As citizens, businesses and non-profit organizations seek to transition to cleaner power sources like solar and wind, some big energy firms whose business models rely on polluting sources are standing in the way.

Congress should make renewable energy standards uniform and give federal regulators the power to oversee the building of a multistate transmission line eastward from Iowa and the Upper Midwest, the head of the nation's largest wind energy group said Tuesday.

"We can't have all the state regulators saying grace over what should be a federal policy," said Denise Bode, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, at a wind conference Tuesday in Ames sponsored by the Iowa Alliance for Wind Innovation.

The vast potential of plant-based energy sources to create renewable energy jobs, curb global warming and protect wildlife could be a reality in the United States--but not without changes in federal policies that have created an unsustainable first generation of biofuels, according to a new report released by the National Wildlife Federation.

The ongoing debate today is whether solar photovoltaics (PV) will emerge from its niche position within the energy sector to become a larger part of our power generation portfolio.