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MPSC Comments to EPA 1-21-16

January 21, 2016 in News & Press

The Midcontinent Power Sector Collaborative (formerly Midwestern Power Sector
Collaborative) is a diverse stakeholder group formed in 2012 to engage EPA and states on the
regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the Midcontinent region.
Participants include state officials, investor-owned utilities, generation and transmission
cooperatives, merchant generators, public power producers and environmental organizations
from the Midcontinent region or with a significant presence in the region. Continue reading »

MIDCONTINENT POWER SECTOR COLLABORATIVE’S COMMENTS TO THE U.S. EPA ON THE DRAFT FEDERAL PLAN AND MODEL RULES

January 21, 2016 in Reports & Whitepapers

January 21, 2016 The Midcontinent Power Sector Collaborative (formerly Midwestern Power Sector Collaborative) is a diverse stakeholder group formed in 2012 to engage EPA and states on the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the Midcontinent region. Participants include state officials, investor-owned utilities, generation and transmission cooperatives, merchant generators, public power producers and environmental organizations from the Midcontinent region or with a significant presence in the region.  The Collaborative is facilitated and staffed by the Great Plains Institute. Continue reading »

Planning for the “New Normal”

January 20, 2016 in Communities Author: Abby Finis

I have never seen a moose. I mean, I have seen photographs, heads mounted on walls, Rocky and Bullwinkle, but not one in real life. With the exception of my eight-year absence from Minnesota, I have been to the Boundary Waters every year, at least once a year, since I was six. I am certain I was six, because in one of the earliest BWCA trip photos, my brother, sister, and I are all wearing our 1987 World Series Champions t-shirts and I am not sporting the unfortunate bowl cut I had in kindergarten. I didn’t see any moose in the 1980s and they have evaded me ever since. Continue reading »

The Paris Paradox: Climate Fix Seems Both Impossible & Inevitable

December 15, 2015 in Carbon Management Author: Rolf Nordstrom

It’s no secret that the world has come to depend almost entirely (87%) on fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—for meeting our energy needs. Since the Industrial Revolution the discovery and use of fossil fuels have led to the largest increase in human well-being ever experienced, quite literally making modern life possible (think electricity, medicine, computers). Continue reading »

Minnesota ENERGY STAR® Challenge Announces Community Partners

December 7, 2015 in News & Press

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 »

China’s Xinjiang Province Holds Major Potential for Carbon Capture and Storage

November 24, 2015 in Carbon Management Author: Brad Crabtree

Located in westernmost China and home to the historic Silk Road that made this region a crossroads of Central Asia, the province of Xinjiang today plays the role of major energy producer, supplying China’s 1.35 billion people and burgeoning economy with fuels, chemicals, fertilizer and other products derived from the province’s abundant coal and oil reserves.  If government and industry leaders in Xinjiang and Beijing play their cards right, this region of China can also become a world-class hub for carbon capture and storage, helping China to satisfy its urgent need to expand domestic energy production and to meet it national commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading »

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