An Ignoble Experiment

2. UC San Diego earns $7M in utility energy-efficiency incentives

Energy efficiency is a practical, common sense idea where Democrats and Republicans can find common ground in the face of national political gridlock and inaction on energy reform, according to Powering Up America: The Revolution Began Yesterday, a new report from the Tremaine Foundation.

On average, U.S. homes and businesses reduce energy waste by 2 percent a year -- double what conventional economists predicted just a decade ago, but that could be changing as Americans "power up." The report defines "powering up" as making energy more productive, asserting more control over energy, and demanding newer, high tech, cleaner domestic energy sources, and says that Americans are doing this to a greater extent than we realize. However, energy success stories outside the beltway are underreported, the report contends.

According to the research, the Great Recession has motivated Americans to increase energy efficiency and invest in "alternative, homegrown energy" to find ways to save money on energy bills. As a result, today's consumers are spending less on energy, making energy more productive, and channeling some of their savings back into local economies.

The nation's 133,000 K-12 schools, which spend $7.5 billion annually on energy, are showing dramatic energy productivity progress, according to the report, pioneering new methods for reducing utility bills and freeing up money for education.

The nation's single largest energy consumer, the military, is also a large part of the clean-energy revolution, according to the report. Over the past decade, the military has quickly adopted clean energy sources, while improving energy productivity by 13.3 percent over a 2003 baseline -- twice the rate of the rest of the national economy.

The surprisingly rapid recent growth of distributed energy -- including on-site solar and wind power and combined heat-and-power systems -- is contributing to a boom in energy productivity, the research concludes. In 2012, for instance, more than 16 million solar panels were installed on U.S. homes and business -- two panels for every second of the working day.

"We believe [this] progress represents the beginning of a movement that will grow quickly, and be hard, if not impossible, to stop," Stewart Hudson, president of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, wrote in the report. "For motivations that are only increasing -- from economics to national security concerns --Powering Up the clean energy economy is real, and is working, and by now should be sending a message to Washington, D.C., that there is room for agreement on the economic as well as environmental benefits of this transition. We have an opportunity to borrow good ideas from Republicans and Democrats that will help bring this new energy economy to scale."

For more:
- see the report

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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3. House passage of Coal Residuals Reuse Act gets mixed reviews

San Diego Gas & Electric's (SDG&E) energy-efficiency projects have paid off for University of California - San Diego, who received a $7.2 million check from the utility.

UC San Diego Irwin & Joan Jacobs School of Engineering. Credit: Carlos Overstreet/Wikimedia Commons

The $7.2 million represents energy-efficiency incentives earned through implementation of 30 energy-efficiency projects from 2010 ($330,000), 2011 ($2.5 million) and 2012 ($4.4 million). Over the three-year period, UC San Diego saved more than 21 million kWh, 2.1 million therms and reduced demand by more than 2 MW.

UC San Diego and SDG&E are partners through the University of California/California State University/Investor Owned Utility Energy Efficiency Partnership program (UC/CSU/IOU Energy Efficiency Partnership) -- a statewide program that includes the 33 UC and CSU campuses served by the four California IOUs.

The partnership aims to achieve cost-effective, immediate and persistent peak energy savings support for campuses in completing energy-efficiency projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The utilities work hand-in-hand with campuses to achieve goals of the UC Sustainability Policy and UC San Diego's Climate Action Plan.

"The collaboration between UC San Diego and SDG&E demonstrates that by leveraging existing partnerships and resources, long-lasting positive impacts for the community and the campus can be achieved," Caroline Winn, SDG&E's vice president of customer services, said.

The energy-efficiency projects also recently earned UC San Diego the distinction of Grand Champion in SDG&E's Energy Champion awards.

For more:
- visit this website

By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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4. BPA among energy-efficiency award winners

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2013, HR 2218, to mixed reviews.

A coal fly ash lagoon. Credit: Richard Webb/Wikimedia Commons

The bill establishes a non-hazardous regulatory framework to govern the disposal of coal combustion residuals, while ensuring that a minimum federal requirement for the disposal of coal combustion residuals is implemented and that the beneficial uses of coal combustion residuals can continue.

Sierra Club Deputy Director of National Campaigns Melinda Pierce claims that, in passing the bill, the U.S. House of Representatives "took one step closer to officially handing over their lawmaking authority to big polluters."

"Imagine stopping every police officer in the middle of a riot or every firefighter in the middle of a blaze, and you'll get a glimpse into what this bill does," Pierce explained in a statement. "We know from the devastating Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill that neither states nor the coal industry will do anything to control their own waste. That's why we need strong, enforceable national standards that put human health and clean water first."

EEI, the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies, disagrees, commending the passage as an effort to resolve the regulatory uncertainty surrounding coal ash disposal.

"This legislation will ensure that coal ash is managed properly and in an environmentally protective way while preserving the beneficial uses of coal ash on which many good American jobs depend," EEI President Tom Kuhn said. "[The] bipartisan vote is a victory for the environment, jobs and electricity consumers. We…urge the Senate to quickly take up this bill to eliminate the regulatory uncertainty surrounding coal ash."

A letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee signed by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, American Public Power Association, and the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group praised the bill, stating, "We believe that the states are in the best position to implement and enforce a permit program for CCR disposal. HR 2218 establishes an environmentally protective framework that includes a key role for EPA to ensure state programs are properly developed…The public can have confidence that the central components of an effective regulatory program will be implemented at facilities across the country. Even more important, they can have confidence that a disposal unit that does not meet environmental and safety standards will be closed."

For more:
- see the bill

Read more about: Sierra Club
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By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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5. NRECA launches second project to power Haiti

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has awarded its Champion of Energy Efficiency Awards in recognition of leadership and accomplishment in energy based on demonstrated excellence in program implementation, research and development, energy policy, and private sector initiatives.

Paul Scheihing, technology manager at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office, received the award for leadership in implementation of industrial energy efficiency, and a career based on advocating for energy efficiency within government and industry.

Rick Marsh, director at the Industrial Energy Efficiency Network, was honored for leadership in industrial energy efficiency in the Southeast, and serving as a mentor to other industrial energy-efficiency professionals across the country.

The Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) Energy Smart Industrial (ESI) program and Jennifer Eskil, BPA's industrial sector lead, received the award for the development and delivery of an exemplary industrial energy-efficiency program on an aggressive schedule with impressive results.

The BPA's ESI program delivers energy savings across a wide variety of industrial markets via its Northwest utilities. Now in its fourth year, the ESI program serves 99 percent of the industrial load in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and has saved nearly 368 million kilowatt-hours.

"ESI's achievements are tied directly to outstanding collaboration among our regional stakeholders," said Eskil. "We have more than 90 percent participation among public utilities, and we've serviced over 500 of their industrial customers."

For more:
- visit this website

Read more about: ACEEE
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By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

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