VT Gov. Shumlin: "An energy innovation program for Vermont"

VT Gov. Peter Shumlin, who also serves as the chairman of the Democratic Governors AssociationAs reported by the Mountain Times of Killington, VT, Governor Peter Shumlin (D-VT) is calling on the State of Vermont Legislature to join him in passing major legislation that would make the Green Mountain State a cutting-edge center for clean, renewable energy and efficiency.

Vermont already boasts 15,000 clean energy jobs, but Shumlin wants to add another 1,000 with this bill.

He also wants a dramatic increase in rooftop solar photovoltaics state-wide. This would be paid for with efficiency cost savings, applied toward solar PV panel installation on customers' monthly bills.

The legislation sets a very aggressive schedule for clean energy implementation. It would require utilities to provide 55% of energy from renewable sources just two years from now, and 75% by 2032.

Shumlin cites job growth, to retain young people in Vermont, and lowering residents' electricity bills, as major motivations for his Energy Innovation Program.

In 2010, Shumlin was the Democratic candidate for governor most opposed to Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee's (VY) license extension, and rode that wave of popular support into the governor's mansion. Before becoming governor, he had led the effort in the Vermont State Senate that culminated, in Feb. 2010, in a 26 to 4 vote to block VY's 20-year license extension. In August 2013, Entergy announced it would permanently shutdown VY. At 12:12pm Eastern on Dec. 29, 2014, it did so.

A reflection of VY's and nuclear power's irrelevance to VT's clean, safe, and affordable energy future? Gov. Shumlin doesn't even mention VY in his op-ed!

Shumlin's op-ed also ran in the Brattleboro Reformer, published very near VY.

Major legal victory in Missouri for distributed solar PV!

As reported by the The Joplin Globe, solar PV advocates including Renew Missouri (the Earth Island Institute) and the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, have just won a major legal victory before the State of Missouri Supreme Court.

The ruling blocks an electric utility from wiggling out of providing rebates to customers who install solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels on their homes, as required by a 2008 state-wide Missouri voter referendum on minimum renewable portfolio standards. The utility, Empire District Electric Co., lobbied for and won the exemption from the State of Missouri legislature. But the State Supreme Court ruled the exemption was an illegal end run around the popular will of "Show Me State" voters, who passed the initiative by a 2 to 1 margin.

As the article reports:

'..."This ruling legally clarifies that as of today (Tuesday), more than six years after a majority of Empire's own customers voted to require them to do so, Empire must offer solar rebates," [P.J. Wilson, director of Renew Missouri,] said.

The plaintiffs were represented by Henry Robertson, an attorney with the nonprofit Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, based in St. Louis. "This is a validation of the initiative petition process and clarifies that the Legislature can't subvert the will of the people before they even get a chance to vote on an issue," he said.

Heather Navarro, director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, said, "Today is a win for Missouri voters and clean energy jobs, especially in Southwest Missouri. Empire customers will now enjoy the same economic benefits of solar energy as seen elsewhere in Missouri."...'

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Associated Press, St. Louis Public Radio, and many other media outlets have reported on this story.

The good news means that solar PV panel installers will now waste no time in setting up shop in southwestern Missouri, creating a significant number of new, skilled, well paid renewable energy jobs (see photo, above left)!

Beyond Nuclear works in coalition with the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, and Missouri Coalition for the Environment, as on "Nuclear Waste Confidence"-related contentions and legal actions opposing atomic reactor licensing.

"Emanuel lines up with Exelon critics to push clean-power agenda"

As reported by Steve Daniels in Crain's Chicago Business, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (photo, left) has joined with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition to promote genuinely clean energy, such as wind, solar, and efficiency.

As the article reports, "Members of the coalition include frequent Exelon foes like consumer advocacy group Citizens Utility Board, the Sierra Club and Wind on the Wires, the industry trade association for Illinois wind producers. But it also includes growing clean energy firms like commercial solar installer SoCore, California-based solar firm SolarCity, GE Wind and energy efficiency firm Schneider Electric...[and] Chicago Pipefitters Local 597...".

The article also reports:

'...Exelon also has suggested that nuclear power, which emits no carbon, ought to be eligible for the same subsidies other clean sources like wind and solar receive.

At the press conference, one of the group's members scoffed at the notion that nuclear should be considered green the way wind and solar power are.

“Everybody knows what (clean power) is,” said Howard Learner, executive director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, a frequent Exelon critic.'