Coal Company Required to Disclose Climate Risks

In the absence of federal climate legislation, it’s amazing what a little litigation can do:

One of the country’s largest builders of coal-fired power plants (Xcel Energy) will give investors detailed warnings about the risks that global warming poses to its business under a deal with New York’s attorney general. [...]

The agreement with Xcel requires the company to analyze the likely effects on its business of current and future legislation or regulations in the states and countries where it operates and to disclose that information in its investor filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the agreement with Mr. Cuomo, Xcel will disclose the financial risks of lawsuits and of federal or state court decisions that would affect its business. The company will also analyze and disclosed the “material financial risks” to itself associated with global warming, like drought — coal plants are prodigious users of water — or rising sea levels.

The Unsexy Energy Crisis

There hasn’t been enough talk about this, but without a massive surge of investment into our electricity transmission infrastructure, the clean energy revolution just won’t happen:

Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.

The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads. [...]

“We still have a third-world grid,” [Bill] Richardson said, repeating a comment he has made several times. “With the federal government not investing, not setting good regulatory mechanisms, and basically taking a back seat on everything except drilling and fossil fuels, the grid has not been modernized, especially for wind energy.”

New Ad Calls For 100% Clean Electricity

The new ad from Gore’s climate action group “We Can Solve It” is a good one:

Here Comes the Sun (Power)

It was a good week for solar power.

First, IKEA announced it was stepping up its cleantech investments, with the “eventual goal of seeing solar panels and other clean technologies on sale in its stores or used by Ikea suppliers.” From Cleantech Media:

The furniture giant plans to invest €50 million ($77 million) in cleantech startups… […]

Ikea GreenTech plans to focus on five areas — solar panels, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency, and water saving and purification. The group said the investments will be made in companies that offer commercial prospects within a four to five year horizon.

“We’re already talking to companies,” Johan Stenebo, managing director of Ikea GreenTech, told the Cleantech Group. He said Ikea is likely to make its first investments this year. “That’s certainly our aim to make happen.”

And on the utility-scale side of solar, there’s more good news:

Companies will build two solar power plants in California that together will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today, the latest indication that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale.

The plants will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant. A megawatt is enough power to run a large Wal-Mart store.

It’s not all sunshine and moonbeams, however. The Daily Grist just arrived in my inbox to remind me that the completion date for the plants is “dependent on state and local approval and a renewal of tax credits currently stalled in Congress.”

Romm’s Got a Crush on Obama’s Energy Plan

Joe Romm at Climate Progress loves Obama’s detailed “New Energy for America” plan:

This is easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a nominee of either party. … This is an aggressive, achievable, and most important of all, a necessary energy plan. Kudos to Senator Obama and his energy team. Maybe he is The One.

I definitely agree that the Obama plan’s emphasis on plug-in hybrids and increased energy efficiency shows that he understands the problem. He’s clearly pushing for un-sexy solutions beyond “drill, drill, drill” or “ethanol, ethanol, ethanol.”

Read the full Obama plan here (PDF).

UPDATE: Watch out, Paul Krugman’s got a crush too: “Now that’s more like it — a hard-hitting political speech with a solid policy proposal behind it.”

Clean Tech the “Next Global Mega-Trend”?

At least that’s what Ceres president Mindy Lubber argues, via Solve Climate:

Warning to U.S. companies: Just because national lawmakers are dawdling on global warming, don’t think your business can dawdle, too.

While U.S. policymakers are running in place on climate change, global investors are moving quickly to make money from its far-reaching risks and opportunities. One Wall Street firm is calling climate change the “next global mega-trend,” after the opening of the Iron Curtain and the Internet revolution. Despite losses from the subprime debacle, European and US investment firms are ramping up their global warming research, trading desks, investments strategies and capital.

The Good News and Bad News for Wind

Via Earth2Tech:

An [American Wind Energy Association] spokeswoman tells Earth2Tech that while Germany still has more installed capacity than the U.S., an estimated 22,000 megawatts to our 17,000 megawatts as of 2007, the U.S. is windier and is producing more actual power. Add to this estimates that the U.S. will add another 6,000 megawatts of capacity this year to Germany’s 1,600, and the U.S. should be able to solidify its spot as the global wind leader by the end of 2008.

But all of that explosive growth could come to a screeching halt if Congress doesn’t provide the industry with some regulatory certainty. And this means extending the tax credits far longer than one year, which was the length of the proposal voted down [this week]. With Congress heading into a long August recess on Friday, it doesn’t look like we’ll see a definite extension any time soon.

Gossip Girl Goes Green?

I hate to admit it, but I’ve seen more than my fair share of Gossip Girl episodes. I can’t say that I like the show.

But this is kind of cool: