MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Minnesota ENERGY STAR Challenge is excited to announce the selection of its community partners: the cities of Hutchinson and Woodbury. Each of these communities has demonstrated leadership in energy and sustainability initiatives and marks the beginning of lasting partnerships that will deepen efforts to increase building energy efficiency. Continue reading »
More than 400 people from the Midcontinent region and around the country took part in a recent workshop – Midcontinent States Regional Workshop: Implementation Options for EPA’s Clean Power Plan – hosted by the Great Plains Institute and the Bipartisan Policy Center, June 5, 2015, in Detroit, Michigan. Continue reading »
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Legislature has established a new program aimed at enabling the commercial construction of Minnesota-based facilities that will produce advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals, or biomass thermal energy utilizing agriculture and forestry feedstocks.
“We are pleased that a new bioenergy program has been signed into law. The Bioeconomy Production Incentive Program received $2 million in funding for the next two years, providing a strong foundation for future project development,” said Great Plains Institute (GPI) Government Affairs Manager Amanda Bilek. Continue reading »
MINNEAPOLIS – Great Plains Institute President & CEO Rolf Nordstrom will travel to Brussels, Belgium, this week to participate in a transatlantic roundtable focused on energy infrastructure in a low carbon future. Continue reading »
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Great Plains Institute President & CEO Rolf Nordstrom announced today that Brian Ross and Abby Finis have joined the GPI team to lead its solar energy development work and contribute to the Institute’s growing practice aimed at helping cities and others achieve their clean energy and sustainability goals. Continue reading »
MINNEAPOLIS – Former Illinois Commerce Commission Chairman Doug Scott has joined the Great Plains Institute (GPI) as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. Continue reading »
(WASHINGTON, DC) – A diverse group of Midwestern states and electricity sector stakeholders has submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to shape the Agency’s impending rules aimed at reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants. The group—the Midwestern Power Sector Collaborative—heads to Washington on December 16th to meet with top officials at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the EPA to discuss their comments. Continue reading »
July 18, 2014 Dear Mike Robinson and Ted Kuhn, The following are comments from the MISO Environmental Sector regarding MISO’s minimum capacity resource limits. Specifically, we ask that MISO re-assess its current minimum limit of 5 MW and look at implementing a limit comparable to PJM (100 kW). This issue was raised by market participants at the June 4, 2014 Demand Response Working Group as a barrier to demand response participation in MISO’s markets. MISO responded with an informational presentation at the July 7 DRWG, describing its rules regarding minimum capacity resource limits, and requested additional stakeholder feedback on the topic. Continue reading »
WASHINGTON – The expansion and reform of an existing federal tax incentive could help produce an additional 8 billion barrels of American oil over the next 40 years while safely storing 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide underground, according to analysis by the National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative (NEORI).
Cambridge, MA, February 5, 2014. Working with Minnesota-based Great River Energy, Brattle Group economists developed a regional market-based approach to implement EPA’s forthcoming rule under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power generating sources (“Existing Source Rule”). The approach uses existing energy market infrastructure to achieve emission reduction targets while ensuring reliability and minimizing cost impacts. Continue reading »
