A TEN TIMES increase in monthly sales of Nissan Leafs?! Continue reading »
Mass-Based Trading under the Clean Power Plan: Options for Allowance Allocation
March 30, 2016 in Reports & Whitepapers
Many states are considering mass-based allowance trading programs to meet the federal requirements under the Clean Power Plan (CPP). Under a mass-based trading approach, states work with a certain number of allowances, or an allowance “budget,” that matches the total emissions limit for each year of the program. States have many options for allocating the allowances that power plants will need to cover their carbon dioxide emissions. Continue reading »
Q&A on Performance-Based Regulation with Energy Innovation’s Sonia Aggarwal
March 30, 2016 in News & Press Author: Jennifer Christensen
In Minnesota, GPI convenes a stakeholder effort called the e21 Initiative that recommends, in part, shifting toward a more performance-based regulatory approach to determine how electric utilities in the state are compensated.
Recently, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission discussed performance-based regulation (commonly referred to as PBR) with expert Sonia Aggarwal, Director of Strategy at Energy Innovation. Ms. Aggarwal and the commissioners had an interesting discussion (see summary here) that raised key issues about how a PBR approach would work and its implications. Continue reading »
States Face Key Decision in Planning to Meet Clean Power Plan with Emissions Trading
March 30, 2016 in Energy Systems Author: Franz Litz
The Great Plains Institute (GPI) has been working with a number of states, industry, non-profit advocates, and institutions helping states to understand and develop strategies for implementing the federal Clean Power Plan. Continue reading »
MINNEAPOLIS – Great Plains Institute (GPI) President & CEO Rolf Nordstrom announced today that Jess Jellings has joined GPI as a meeting planner and administrative assistant. Continue reading »
Carbon Capture Act Has Broad, Bipartisan Congressional Support
March 29, 2016 in Carbon Management Author: Brad Crabtree
Recently, top coal, electric power, oil, ethanol, and other companies, key industrial labor unions and prominent national environmental and climate organizations joined forces for the first time in calling on Congress to support a federal incentive for carbon capture and storage (CCS) that would simultaneously increase domestic oil production and reduce carbon emissions. Continue reading »
A problem that is often raised during Minnesota public policy discussions is that state government is not truly representative of Minnesota’s population, especially as the makeup of the state is rapidly changing. The Great Plains Institute (GPI) is serving as a host organization for a new public policy internship program that aims to begin to address this challenge. The Capitol Pathways internship program is organized by the Citizens League and places college students of color in nonprofits, government agencies, and lobbying firms during the Minnesota legislative session. Continue reading »
Trevor and Abby Chat Solar Gardens
March 16, 2016 in Communities, Energy Systems Authors: Abby Finis, Trevor Drake
In 2013, the State of Minnesota enacted 216B.1641 Community Solar Garden, which established the Xcel Energy Community Solar Garden Program. This program brought a lot of excitement to the Minnesota solar industry, leading to an influx of solar developers and long queue of solar garden applications. Because the program is new and has generated a lot of interest, there have been a few bumps along the way. Continue reading »
Energy Storage Technologies and Their Value to the Grid
March 8, 2016 in Energy Systems Author: Matt Prorok
Part Two of Our Series on Energy Storage
(see Part One here)
Energy storage is a hot topic across the country. Rapidly falling prices, improved performance, and a whole lot of investment are creating quite a buzz in the energy storage sector. Continue reading »
Press Release: Diverse Coalition Hails Introduction of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Incentive Bill
February 25, 2016 in News & Press
Federal legislation to spur commercial deployment of technologies to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and industrial facilities for use in enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) was introduced today by US Representative Mike Conaway with 18 co-sponsors from both political parties. The National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative (NEORI) and Coal Utilization Resource Council (CURC) are hailing introduction of the bill. Continue reading »
