In the Pipeline: 12/2/11

She might be able to make due with off shore wind energy, but I don’t live in a hovel and I enjoy my big screen TV Richmond Times (11/30/11) reports: About 50 environmental activists called on the State Corporation Commission Wednesday to require Dominion Virginia Power to invest more in renewable energy…”There’s enough offshore wind energy in Virginia to provide all of our energy needs,” Sierra Club organizer Patrick Stelmach said…Enough sunlight falls on downtown Richmond that “we’d be able to power almost every single business,” said James Huff, the CEO of abakus solar USA, a wholesale solar-energy components business in Richmond…Chanting “What do we want? Clean energy,” the group unfurled a 300-foot-long petition outside Dominion Virginia Power’s main office in downtown Richmond…”I feel very strongly we’ve got to deploy renewable energy resources and move off coal,” said Susan Stillman, a retired technology saleswoman from Vienna. “Energy absolutely is an issue when it comes to climate change.”

Continuing the theme — President Obama assures consumers that his new air quality rules  (which will shut down 28 gigawatts of power) will create no disruption in electricity New York Times (12/1/11) reports: The Obama administration said Thursday that a series of new air pollution rules for power plants would not cause power shortages, although the expert panel designated by the government to ensure electricity reliability warns that compliance with these rules could strain generating capacity… The Environmental Protection Agency, under fire from the utility industry and from Republicans in Congress for what they call excessive regulation, has sent signals that it will be flexible in applying the new rules and may grant extensions or exemptions to make sure the lights stay on.

Shaky? Shaky? For the love of God he said that killing ESA reform was his greatest accomplishment as Speaker. Darren needs to get better sources Politico (12/1/11) reports: The differences between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney on energy and environmental policy seem to be more about style than substance…Romney is widely seen as the more cautious of the two GOP presidential front-runners, someone more likely to start a White House term by proposing new economic and tax ideas and shying away from antagonistic battles with environmentalists and Democrats.

SolarCity is praised for finding private capital and for not going bankrupt…these are the times in which we live Los Angeles Times (12/2/11) reports: SolarCity, the San Mateo-based company that is one of the country’s largest residential solar energy system providers, is proving that you don’t need a federal loan guarantee to find financing for major projects…SolarCity Corp. had seen its hopes for a U.S. loan guarantee evaporate in the political fallout from the widely publicized Solyndra LLC bankruptcy. But the company said this week it was able to obtain financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch…The Bank of America financing will allow SolarCity to move ahead on its five-year, $1-billion “SolarStrong” rooftop project for military housing. As part of the project, SolarCity plans to partner with privatized military housing developers to install, own and operate rooftop installations and provide solar electricity for Armed Forces families at lower costs than traditional utility power.

Really? This character is being hailed as in innovator on the climate debate because he threw a Frisbee in the crowd? Reuters (12/2/11) reports: When Pablo Suarez began teaching farmers, fishermen and emergency volunteers about rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns using scientists and a powerpoint presentation, people were falling asleep in their chairs…Eventually he decided on a very different approach…”I had to convey the idea of a storm, of an extreme weather event, and I had a Frisbee and I just threw it into the audience,” Suarez, a Red Cross associate director of programs, told Reuters on the sidelines of a global climate summit…”And the audience woke up, they saw that there was danger.”