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September 8, 2021

Energy Fairness Podcast #1: Somerset REC and its Response to Flight 93

For Energy Fairness’ first podcast, Executive Director Paul Griffin has an in-depth conversation with former Somerset Rural Electric Cooperative CEO, Rich Bauer, regarding the small rural electric coop’s response to the Flight 93 crash site.   Somerset’s employees were some of the first on the scene and had to overcome numerous […]
September 3, 2021

The wrath of Ida prompts calls for resilient energy infrastructure

Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on Louisiana and Mississippi earlier this week. The storm’s 150 miles per hour winds knocked out the power for around 1 million people and took more than 2000 miles of critical high-voltage transmission offline. An army of brave linemen is pouring into the region, but it […]
September 2, 2021

New York Will Need More Than Renewables To Reach Climate Goals

New York has some of the most aggressive clean energy goals in the U.S. The Empire State expects 70% of its electricity to originate from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040. While the 2030 goal is in reach, power providers say the 2040 goal is unattainable […]
August 27, 2021

U.S. Departure from Afghanistan Complicates Rare Earth Minerals Market

We offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the 13 U.S. Marines currently identified as having lost their lives in deadly attacks in Kabul and offer our prayers for those Americans and others still awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan. As Americans reel from the loss of at […]
August 18, 2021

Biden Administration Looks to OPEC, Not U.S. Drillers, to Ease Pain at the Pump

Gas prices are edging up ever higher. Consumers feel the pain, with prices currently hovering around a dollar a gallon more than a year ago. The Biden Administration has called on OPEC and its allies to ramp up supply and bring prices down. However, we can’t help but wonder, why […]
August 10, 2021

Nuclear is Key For Cutting Emissions

To win on climate, we’ll need access to clean energy that can run 24/7. At the moment, nuclear energy is the only power source that can do that. Unfortunately, as we’ve noted many times, nuclear facilities have been closing at a startling pace in the U.S., with the Vogtle project […]
July 27, 2021

Showdown in the Land of Lincoln

About an hour and a half southeast of St. Louis in the heartland of Illinois sits the Prairie State Energy Campus – one of the most modern and environmentally controlled coal power stations in the country.  Not quite ten years old, Prairie State is among the most efficient plants in […]
July 21, 2021

Colonial Pipeline Attack Spurs Action

In May, the Eastern European crime group DarkSide shut down the Colonial Pipeline for six days. The pipeline is a critical piece of infrastructure that provides 45% of fuel for the East Coast. The shutdown left thousands of service stations without gas and pushed prices to the highest levels in […]
July 16, 2021

Energy Storage to Get Its Shot

Can researchers bring the cost of energy storage down 90% over the next decade? A new initiative from the Biden Administration hopes to accomplish just that. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the program, called the Long Duration Storage Shot, as the second target of the Department of Energy’s […]
July 12, 2021

Supreme Court calls into question efforts to address climate change impacts through state courts

ICYMI: Energy Fairness Executive Director Paul Griffin authored an article in The Daily Sentinel arguing that climate policy should be set by Congress, not the Supreme Court. The original piece can be viewed here. In May, the Supreme Court issued a blow to climate lawsuit advocates seeking to legislate climate change policy […]
July 8, 2021

Alabama’s Carbon Capture Center Tests Breakthrough Technology

Energy Fairness has always enthusiastically supported carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) research and development. The technology has enormous potential to take carbon dioxide emissions from the air and convert them into everyday products such as plastics or even jet fuel. Yet, there’s exciting potential in another use—concrete building blocks. […]
July 1, 2021

California moves to end unfair $230/year rooftop solar subsidy for rich

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to end an unfair rooftop solar subsidy that generally favors the rich.   The CPUC action highlights that after 25 years, the rooftop solar industry is mature and no longer needs to be subsidized on the backs of the poor and middle-class Californians. […]
July 29, 2020

Kiwis Look to Pumped Storage to Meet Climate Goals

Lost in the accolades that New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden, received for the proactive measures that her government implemented to squash the Covid-19 epidemic in her remote Pacific Rim nation was a report from the country’s Interim Climate Change Committee calling for the use of more pumped hydropower storage […]
August 13, 2020

Energy Fairness Applauds Common-Sense Action on EPA Methane Gas Rule.

Boulder County, CO – Energy Fairness Executive Director, Paul Griffin,  made the following statement today regarding the EPA’s release of the Methane Gas Rule. “From NEPA to today’s release of the final Methane Gas regulation, there has been a concerted effort over the last several years to streamline regulatory efforts […]
August 25, 2020

Fossil Fuel Boycotts: Dangerous & Illegal

We’ve written many times about the dangers of America’s largest financial institutions picking winners and losers for energy development, but the trend has sadly continued. Banks are continuing to withhold funding for oil and gas projects, and it is quickly becoming clear that these actions may be illegal. Federal anti-trust […]
August 28, 2020

Shawn Taylor Brings Western Presence to Energy Fairness Board

Washington, DC — Today, the Energy Fairness board announced that Shawn Taylor, Executive Director of the Wyoming Rural Electric Association (WREA), will fill an open position on the board made vacant through the recent resignation of Bill Verner. Verner recently retired after serving a 35 year-plus tenure at the non-profit […]
August 31, 2020

Golden State Study Highlights Inequities in Roof-Top Solar

Earlier this month, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) released an independent report detailing how its ratepayers without rooftop solar subsidize its customers with rooftop solar systems at a rate between $25 million and $41 million annually. In a nutshell, the report found that “while net-metered [rooftop] solar provides a […]
September 4, 2020

The D.C. Intertie: A Lifeline to California and An Engineering Marvel

It’s been just over 50 years since Neil Armstrong took man’s first steps on the moon, uttering the memorable phrase – “that’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.”  His words put the final stamp on a phenomenal engineering achievement first presented as a challenge to […]