Last week’s announcement of the Early Release version of the US Energy Information’s Annual Energy Outlook for 2011 prompted a number of reactions along the lines of the NY Times’s Green Blog posting “The energy future ain’t what it used to be“. Driving that reaction is the opening bullet of the Executive Summary, which highlights [...]
Please join us for a BSAS panel on SEC Climate Change Disclosure Requirements on December 14th. The investment community has an opportunity to shape the future of public disclosure by getting involved early (and often). This program is one of several the SRI program sub-committee of the BSAS is planning for the coming year. If [...]
There is general agreement that, below a certain size, the transaction costs of a renewable energy project become prohibitive relative to the scale of the benefits. Typical transaction costs include the time and cost involved in: The many legal documents and agreements – land leases, power purchase agreements, financing, agreements among partners and owners, construction [...]
A previous post made a case for the potentially transformative role of the Nissan Leaf in the electrification of transportation, but most of the major automakers have plans that involve electric vehicles. The October Clean Cities Massachusetts Electric Vehicle workshop was far from a definitive or complete statement on where the auto industry is on [...]
At a recent Massachusetts Clean Cities Coalition Electric Vehicle Workshop, speakers capably covered a broad range of topics relevant to the electrification of transportation, but the most powerful statement may have been made by an inanimate object – the Nissan Leaf parked in front of the conference center. That’s because the Leaf has the potential [...]
A discussion over the ways in which clean tech is or isn’t similar to info tech is unnecessarily clouding a larger and more fundamental issue – that clean tech has the potential to be the next great technology-based engine of economic growth and jobs. The economic growth that since World War II brought the United [...]
What’s next in the fight for a comprehensive federal policy on energy and climate change? After the US Senate’s abject failure to even take up, let alone pass, a version of legislation for which the House had already done the heavy lifting, some are tempted to give up, to assume that nothing can happen for [...]
Massachusetts and New England are positioned to play a pivotal role in the future of comprehensive energy and climate legislation. The New England representatives that are leaders in the Congress for this legislation have made clear that it is a compelling national interest to address this challenge, but they also clearly recognize the importance of [...]
While constituents meeting Senators and their staffs was the priority and primary motivation behind last week’s Clean Energy Works fly-in, the presence of almost 200 people from around the country was also an opportunity to publicize the wide support for comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation to a bigger audience. The Town Hall Meeting was [...]
“Sixty is the new fifty” may have first been said about aging baby boomers, but it’s also the new reality of getting anything done in the US Senate. Although the Senate’s rules have long been structured to allow careful deliberation or endless delay, depending on your view of a particular situation, their use has been [...]
