President Obama and the U.S. Senate have failed. They promised legislation to transform our energy system, create jobs and reduce pollution and today Senate Majority Leader Reid gave up.

Comment (0) Read More...

In advance of pending federal energy legislation, a group of nearly 60 businesses and advocates banded together to write a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid to call for the inclusion of a strong federal Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) in any legislation that moves forward.  The cosigners included some big names who are calling on Congress to pass a strong EERS, including:  Ben & Jerry's, Best Buy, eBay, Gap, Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, Starbucks, Symantec, and The North Face. Special thanks and praise goes out to a couple of our own Minnesotan companies who also signed on to the letter: Target Corporation and Best Buy. Many thanks to Minnesota companies who are leaders on clean energy and efficiency! Fresh Energy was among the clean energy and efficiency advocates also signing on to the letter calling for Congressional action on an EERS.

Comment (0)

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in a show of bi-partisan support, approved this morning a bill to put 400,000 electric vehicles on the road in three years. The Promoting Electric Vehicles Act of 2010 passed the committee on a 19 to 4 vote. Senator Murkowski (R-Alaska) said after the vote, "I am willing to take the risk where we're putting our money on the electrification of vehicles."

The $3.6 billion bill, authored by Senator Dorgan (D-North Dakota) spends $1.5 billion on research, including a $10 million prize for the development of a vehicle battery with a 500 mile range, and up to $250 million for deployment communities that would serve as large-scale pilot programs for the rest of the nation. The deployment communities will receive targeted incentives to promote the purchase of electric vehicles and the construction of charging stations to learn best practices for the rapid deployment of electric vehicles.

Comment (0) Read More...

Environmentalists aren't the only ones supporting electric vehicles these days; the U.S. Army has joined automakers to produce fuel-efficient, combat-ready electric vehicles. The reason: according to the Brooking Institution's Fueling the ‘Balance:' A Defense Energy Strategy Primer, "A $10 increase in the cost of a barrel of oil increases the price of [Defense Department] operations by $1.3 billion. To put this into context, each $10 price increase is equivalent to a loss of almost the entire U.S. Marine Corps procurement budget." Furthermore, according to Thomas Mathes, development director of the Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, a 1 percent reduction in fuel consumption in Iraq would put 6,500 fewer troops in harm's way protecting fuel lines and sources.

Comment (0) Read More...

America, and in particular Minnesota, is far behind the rest of the world in enacting legislative initiatives to promote electric vehicles.

Comment (0) Read More...

Congress is currently deciding what energy legislation will be debated this year - and we need to make sure that a strong, federal renewable energy standard (RES) isn't left on the cutting room floor. An RES is an easy, straightforward way to increase the percentage of renewable energy we get our electricity from while creating thousands of jobs. Take a minute to sign the American Wind Energy Association's petition asking Congress to pass a strong RES this year!!

Comment (0)

It's finally summer...three months of warm weekend getaways and backyard barbeques. But there are 100 people in Washington who can't afford to take any time off. Our U.S. senators now have two comprehensive climate and energy bills in front of them: the American Power Act and the Carbon Limits and Energy for America's Renewal (CLEAR) Act. Both would create new American jobs, decrease our dependence on dirty oil, and cut global warming pollution through nationwide carbon emission limits. In addition, both bills would return a large portion of the revenue generated from making polluters pay for carbon to American families.

Comment (3) Read More...

Over 1,200 organizations have signed a letter to President Obama calling for his leadership to help pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation this year. Fresh Energy is proud to be among them.

Comment (0) Read More...

A new study released by the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics projected that the American Power Act would generate an average of 203,000 new jobs annually above business-as-usual between 2011 and 2020.

The Peterson Institute study looked at possible impacts of the proposed legislation to the economy, employment, energy security, and the environment. Besides reducing U.S. GHG emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, the study projects that if passed, the bill would reduce U.S. imported oil purchases by $51-$93 billion annually.

Comment (0) Read More...

An analysis recently released by McKinsey and Company called "The U.S. Low Carbon Economics Tool" provides in-depth macroeconomic modeling of different scenarios of possible energy and climate policies. With the recent release of the American Power Act, an analysis of this type is invaluable for better understanding the implications of different policy measures as well as the economic impact of inaction. With this tool we can better understand the changes to jobs, gross domestic product (GDP), energy prices, taxes, energy demand, and industry cost structure in relation to different policies.

Comment (0) Read More...