Energy Law

President Bush Signs Energy Bill into Law; EPA Immeidately Uses New Legislation to Reject California's Clean Air Act Wavier Request

Posted on December 19, 2007
President Bush signed the 2007 federal energy bill into law today. The new legislation will boost fuel economy standards for vehicles and increase renewable fuel production, but is actually a major step backward for the renewable electricity industry, particularly solar and wind...

House Passes Revised Energy Bill; President Bush Expected to Sign Wednesday

Posted on December 18, 2007
The U.S. House approved a revised version of the federal energy bill today on a vote of 314-100. The legislation returned to the House for final approval last week after the Senate dropped key renewable energy provisions from the bill.President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law tomorrow...

Senate Passes Energy Bill; Key Renewable Energy Provisions Axed

Posted on December 14, 2007
The U.S. Senate passed a watered-down version of the federal energy bill yesterday 86-8. Democratic leaders dropped key renewable energy provisions from the legislation after a cloture vote failed by one vote.That move leaves federal support for the renewable energy industry in limbo...

One Vote Short; Senate Fails to Proceed With Federal Energy Bill

Posted on December 13, 2007
The Hill is reporting that the Senate vote to proceed with the energy bill fell short by one vote, 59-40. According to the article, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to strip out the renewable energy tax package and try to pass the remainder of the bill this afternoon...

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U.S. Renewable Energy Use to Double by 2030

Posted on December 13, 2007
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its annual long-term U.S. energy forecast yesterday (large pdf). The EIA's new analysis anticipates that renewable energy use will double by 2030. According to the Annual Energy Outlook 2008 Report: The use of renewable technologies for electricity generation is stimulated by improved technology, higher fossil fuel prices, and extension of the tax credits in EPACT2005...

Senate Energy Bill Showdown Expected Tomorrow

Posted on December 12, 2007
According to reports, Senate Democrats plan to press ahead this week with an energy bill that maintains a substantial renewable energy tax package. Democratic leaders have dropped plans for a 15% renewable energy portfolio standard, but believe that they can pass a revised version of the bill which still includes portions of the $21 billion renewable energy tax package passed by the House last week...

Federal Energy Bill Stalls In Senate

Posted on December 07, 2007
The Hill reports:The Senate Friday voted against taking up the energy bill approved by the House earlier this week, making it likely that some provisions in the House bill will have to be stripped in order for Congress to complete a final energy package...

U.S. House Approves 2007 Federal Energy Bill; Senate Cloture Vote Expected Saturday

Posted on December 06, 2007
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved the energy bill (H.R. 6) on a vote of 235-181.The AP reports:The House approved the first increase in federal automobile fuel efficiency requirements in three decades Thursday as part of an energy bill that also repeals billions of dollars oil company tax breaks and encourages use of renewable fuels...

House Floor Debate on Energy Bill

Posted on December 05, 2007
The House is currently debating the new version of the energy bill (H.R. 6). Check out CSPAN for live coverage of the debate.Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the bill "will be a shot heard round the world for energy independence for our country."Renewable Energy Access has a good article on the current bill by Scott Sklar, of the Stella Group, Ltd...

House Dems Push for RPS and Renewable Energy Tax Package; Energy Bill Showdown Expected in Senate; Veto Looms

Posted on December 05, 2007
It's time to install wind turbines in the halls of Congress; you could power several thousand homes with the hot air blowing out of Washington this week on the federal energy bill, and things are only starting to heat-up.Just when it looked like the House had abandoned plans for a federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and an important renewable energy tax package, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that both measures will be included in the final bill...

Federal Energy Bill Negotiations Continue; Fate of Renewable Energy Provisions Uncertain

Posted on November 29, 2007
The Wall Street Journal reported late last week that chances for a comprehensive federal energy bill are improving (subscription required). Congressional negotiations over the compromise legislation continue, with renewed interest in federal fuel economy standards sparked by rising oil prices...

Google's New Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal

Posted on November 28, 2007
The Washington Post reports on Google's new renewable energy R&D efforts:Google Inc (GOOG.O) said on Tuesday it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive down the cost of electricity made from renewable energy below the price of coal...

Federal Energy Bill in Legislative Limbo

Posted on November 14, 2007
The New York Times editorial this morning asks: Where?s That Energy Bill?Two months ago, Washington was filled with hope that Congress would produce an energy bill that would begin to address the two great challenges of oil dependency and climate change...

Stage Set for Conference Committee Negotiations on Federal Energy Legislation

Posted on October 05, 2007
Congressional staffers have started preliminary talks in an effort to reconcile the separate energy bills passed by the House and Senate this summer. The discussions set the stage for conference committee negotiations later this fall, with the goal of producing a final federal energy bill before the end of the year...

DOE Announces Final Rule for Advanced Energy Technology Loan Guarantee Program

Posted on October 05, 2007
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced yesterday that is has published final rules for the Advanced Energy Technology loan guarantee program authorized by Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). The loan guarantee program is designed to stimulate investment in and development of clean energy technologies...

House Committee on Energy Publishes White Paper on Climate Change Legislation Policy Options

Posted on October 03, 2007
The House Committee on Energy has released the first of several planned white papers on potential climate change legislation. The Committee's first white paper provides background information on the potential scope of a national carbon cap-and-trade program...

Wired Magazine on the Future of Cellulosic Ethanol

Posted on October 02, 2007
This month's cover story in Wired magazine focuses the growing cellulosic ethanol industry. The article provides a nice background on the basic chemistry of producing ethanol from plant cellulose and looks at the technical challenges facing the industry...

Climate Week: Review of U.S. State Department & U.N. Climate Change Meetings

Posted on October 01, 2007
On E&E TV today Eileen Claussen of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change discusses last week's dueling climate change meetings, one hosted by the U.S. State Department and the other by the U.N.

Wind Energy On Demand? A Closer Look at Compressed Air Energy Storage

Posted on September 30, 2007
David Marcus, of General Compression, discusses the benefits of compressed air energy storage systems (CAES) over at Renewable Energy Access.com. The technology is designed to store wind energy by using electricity generated during periods of high wind speeds and low electricity demand to pressurize air in storage tanks...

Renewable Energy News for June 29, 2007

Posted on June 29, 2007
New Report on Opportunities in the "Low Carbon Economy": The Climate Group has just published a new report on the boom of businesses in the new "low-carbon economy." The report - In the Black, The Growth of the Low-Carbon Economy (zip file) - covers "the rapid growth experienced by companies providing innovative low carbon products and services...

Renewable Energy News for June 28, 2007

Posted on June 27, 2007
Full Text of Final U.S. Senate Energy Bill Available: The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has released the final text of the Senate energy bill, H.R. 6 (large pdf) as amended and passed by the Senate last week (via BlueClimate). Yesterday E & E TV aired a panel discussion of the Senate energy legislation and its prospects in the House...

Renewable Energy News for June 27, 2007

Posted on June 26, 2007
How Does the U.S. Ocean Energy Industry Compare with the Rest of the World? Carolyn Elefant, author of the Offshore Renewable Energy Law Blog, and Sean O'Neill, co-founder of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, discuss the state of the U.S. ocean energy sector in an article posted on renewableenergyaccess...

Renewable Energy News for June 26, 2007

Posted on June 26, 2007
A Closer Look at the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007 (H.R. 2776): U.S. House Ways and Means Committee recently reported H.R. 2776 out of committee on a 24 to 16 vote. The committee markup summary reviews the key provisions of the tax bill, which include, among other things, a long-term an extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for renewable energy sources to 2012, an expansion of the clean renewable energy bond (CREB) program, a long-term extension of the solar energy and fuel cell property credit to 2016, and an expansion of the residential energy-efficiency property program...

Renewable Energy News For June 25, 2007

Posted on June 25, 2007
Which Climate Change Policies do Americans Support?: E & E TV reports on a study conducted by New Scientist magazine, Stanford University, and Resources for the Future that takes a look at which climate policies Americans will likely support when costs are taken into account...

U.S. Senate Passes Clean Energy Act

Posted on June 22, 2007
Late last night the U.S. Senate passed a version of the Clean Energy Act on a 65-27 vote, but key provisions of the bill didn't make the final cut. The bill does include an 40% increase in average fuel economy standards from 25 to 35 mpg by 2020, but the Senate did not include a national renewable portfolio standard in the legislation, and an amendment which would have provided $32 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy sources was blocked...

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