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Policy Friday
Wallpaper sized, click here.
By Yancey Roy
Albany bureau
ALBANY — Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Thursday unveiled a new energy strategy that relies on reducing energy use by 15 percent by 2015, investing $300 million in renewable and “clean†power projects and increasing supply by passing a new law to expedite power-plant siting.
Simultaneously, the state gave a big boost to wind power by awarding performance-based grants to nine new “wind farms,†including three in Steuben County and one in Herkimer County. The facilities, which state officials predict will open in 2008, will significantly increase the state’s use of wind — currently there are just four large-scale wind power facilities supplying power to the electricity grid, according to state officials.
When the Federal Government fails, or in the case of the last 12 years, been purposefully run into the ground, states–the laboratory of policy–lead the way. I’ve not been as happy as I’d liked with what I’ve seen coming out of Spitzer’s Albany since the inauguration, but an “estimated $1.4 billion in private investment” coming into New York because of these proposed incentives is a step in the right direction.
Highlights of the plan include:
- Reduce electricity consumption by 15 percent by 2015 — what Spitzer calls the “most aggressive target in the nation†— by strengthening efficiency standards, rewriting laws that currently discourage utilities from conserving energy and committing state government facilities to use wind and other “clean†energy sources.
- Increase supply by passing a new law to expedite the siting of new power plants. The law, known as Article 10, expired in 2003. Gov. George Pataki and legislators were never able to agree on how to renew it. Because of that, just a small amount of power supply has been added to the grid while demand has climbed.
- Allocate $295 million to let 21 contracts for “clean,†renewable power projects — especially wind.
12 Responses to “Policy Friday”
So you’re saying there is hope.
Excellent.
Sweet pic. Think it’ll make fine wallpaper.
L8
It is up to the states since the federal government is too busy giving handouts to big oil.
Thanks Michael, I’ll have to make a bigger version.
Sounds like your governor and mine have the right idea. Now let’s see if they can implement it without the oiligarchs getting to fussy.
Bush has completely trashed our federal government. It’s really going to take state and local governments working together to get any traction.
We need neighborhoods to go energy independent block by block and eventually have whole towns go energy independent. Solar and Wind are quite capable of powering a neighborhood or even a small town with perhaps a natural gas generator as backup.
The problem is that big energy co’s don’t want us to achieve energy independence. It’s an uphill battle.
But more and more towns are looking at the prospects of taking themselves off the grid.
I live in Cali and between us and Nevada is a huge wind farm. I love driving by there on our way to Las Vegas.
Its sad but it seems its going to be up to the states to individually figure out this alternative energy thing. But I am happy that they are doing something on some level. I think the Gov’nor is on the right path.
It IS a step in the right direction. Oh yeah, what Lew said too.
It’s no surprise that Texas now leads the nation in wind farms or that contractors for wind power happen to be from Bush’s home state. There’s a lot of money in this. What may not be obvious is that coal fired powerplants are need to provide additional energy when the wind is not blowing and are often built alongside them as a supplemental source of energy. It’s also no surprise that Texas also currently has the highest air pollution in the country now.
What is really exciting me is the enormous manic amounts of research going into new solar cells..there is frantic amount of work being done that rivals the amount of nanotechnology development we saw 5 or 10 years ago. Some of then new solar cells will boost the energy output in huge amounts…with no need for coal plants alongside them.
It’s a good start. I wish Georgia would get with the program but we will be behind the curve for quite sometime since we are completely controlled by the GOP and the other wingnuts.
Windmills have been a part of farm life in america for years, yet, through time, a majority were left to the elements without keeping them working. Sound familiar?
In the east bay, of SF, there’s a whole area that’s full of these as the wind blows through there at a great pace!
Utilizing wind power with solar makes a whole lot of sense. That too started to take off in Ca in the late 70s early 80s. Again, no tax incentives and prices too high for most people to put in their homes.
Hmmmmm, sounds eerily like the whole gas situation. ; (
Now if we (California) can just get Big Auto’s lawsuit against the state dismissed (very likely now that Massachusetts v. EPA is settled), we can get our own efforts back on track.
There is a huge wind farm along the 10 Freeway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. It has an elegance to it, really, that no oil field shares.
And yes, the pic is great.