Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 8/15/2023 For most California residents, electric rates will soon be based partly on customer income levels. A controversial law passed last year required regulators to establish the new rate structure by the summer of 2024. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is now considering several proposals detailing how the new rates … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 6/7/2023 Climate activists and clean energy advocates have widely applauded the investments in climate-related action promised in both the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure legislation. Those investments are now in jeopardy as House Republicans hold the debt ceiling hostage and propose to gut the administration’s clean energy portfolio. Real Clear … Read more
Matt Arisohn, Zondits guest, 4/25/2023 Matt Arisohn is the President at Next Energy World, LLC where he works with commercial customers to obtain higher energy efficiency levels, install clean energy systems, and reduce costs. This article has been edited from a blog entry posted by Matt, https://new-sustainability.com/f/utility-bill-triage-standby-rates. During this past winter, electric and natural gas … Read more
Matt Montalbano, Zondits guest, 4/7/2023 Coal ash landfills are known sources of groundwater pollution, and the pollutants involved include arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and lithium. A loophole in EPA regulations has allowed hundreds of existing coal ash landfills to be operated without the safeguards required of new landfills. Thanks to concerned citizens, that may soon … Read more
Angie Ziech-Malek, Zondits guest, 10/21/2022 With the recent enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Law that preceded it, the United States is about to embark on a large experiment with energy policy, funded by the federal government, and each state’s energy policy experiment will determine how these investments pay off. States are … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 9/23/2022 Much of the energy news surrounding the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has focused on tax credits for electric vehicles (EVs), EV charging networks, solar energy, and the opening of both offshore and onshore federal lands for both wind and fossil fuel development. But the promise of “clean” hydrogen has not … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 8/18/2022 After what has often seemed a roller coaster headed off the rails, President Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Like everything in modern politics, the interpretation of the content, intent, and impacts varies greatly. Zondits has scoured analyses from multiple news outlets, progressive and conservative, to accurately summarize the … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 5/31/2022 Many U.S. states offer tax credits and efficiency program rebates for the installation of electric heat pumps in homes and commercial buildings. Newly introduced federal legislation would provide tax credits directly to the manufacturers of such products. The Senate bill is sponsored jointly by Democratic Senators Klobuchar, Smith, Hickenlooper, Whitehouse, … Read more
Matt Montalbano, Zondits staff, 5/13/2022 The Biden administration in March announced plans to resume drilling for oil and gas on federal lands. The reversal in policy was made after a federal appeals court granted a White House request to allow the administration to use a revamped metric for calculating the potential cost to society of … Read more
Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 4/27/2022 A recent report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on the status of utility-scale energy storage illustrates that battery storage is a proven technology for the shifting of electrical loads and improving grid stability. It also makes it clear that storage systems must continue to grow along with … Read more