This new spirit of climate awareness and responsibility in the financial sector is epitomised by the open letter issued to G20 leaders in August, asking them to ratify the Paris agreement, signed on behalf of 130 institutions, together controlling some US trillion of investments. It’s also a low-population state with a half-million people.
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The meeting was hosted by the Moroccan Presidency of COP22 and the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a coalition of 47 governments, to assess how a global transition to 100% renewable energy would help to limit global warming to 1.5°C degrees above pre-industrial levels. But while its possible demise under the Trump administration would be a definite disappointment for the renewable energy industry, it wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster, either.
“For those concerned, don’t panic”, Henry said.
GM’s Arlington plant, which builds its big sport utility vehicles – already 50 percent powered by renewable energy – will then be entirely fueled by green energy.
Our country is blessed with a diverse array of high quality renewable energy resources.
Richter: No one really knows what the Trump administration’s energy policy will be.
“A critical part of the Rust Belt revolution, as some are now calling it, may have been reaction to the second Obama term, especially regulatory overreach”, said Salo Zelermyer, a partner with the Policy Resolution Group at Bracewell LLP in a webinar about the election November 9.
New renewables capacity in the global power sector was higher a year ago than coal, gas, oil and nuclear combined, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
LePage often has said he favors expanding access to natural gas as a way to reduce energy costs, rather than subsidizing solar and wind projects. Just last week, we saw the confusion at the heart of Conservative energy policy, as their energy spokesperson Alexander Burnett suggested subsidies should only support “emerging technologies” whilst tying himself in knots trying to defend the UK Government’s subsidising of the white elephant Hinkley Point project.
The cost of energy is embedded in almost every good and service families and businesses use, which means price spikes often act as a regressive tax on those who can least afford it. State leadership on clean energy is important for so many reasons. Over the last several years, the energy sector, driven by market forces and consumer preference, has rapidly shifted toward clean energy. Smith noted consumers’ excitement over electric auto maker Tesla Motors, which is now working on lower-priced models with greater energy efficiency.
As this year’s Data Book illustrates, the clean energy revolution continues to expand in the USA and around the world. He and other climate experts are concerned that any US withdrawal from the Paris agreement could seriously disrupt the larger global community’s commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In Colorado and across the country, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan has caused heated debate. If the actions of Walmart and Microsoft are any indication, a Trump administration will do little to dissuade companies from continuing to invest in renewables.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said it is still reviewing the rule.
But infrastructure expansion also will be subject to market forces, according to the panelists.
And this month has brought more prominent examples.
On Wednesday, the USA will release a long-term decarbonization strategy, said Jonathan Pershing, the State Department’s climate change envoy. The rule strengthens existing policies and creates a new leasing program that will support renewable energy development through competitive leasing processes and incentives to encourage development in suitable areas. That transformation can be justified entirely on the basis of cost savings and efficiency alone, he said.
Image: Solar installers from Baker Electric place solar panels on the roof of a residential home in Scripps Ranch, San Diego, California, U.S. October 14, 2016.
Many states already have legislation in place created to support development of renewable energy, and states such as NY and MA will probably press ahead with their plans.
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“A lot of these trends are driven by our customers asking for these distributed resources”, Jason Smith said. “With all of that in play, carbon per student is 47 percent less than it was in 2001”. Beyond that, their future is “questionable”, he said.
