Henry Harrell"s Blog: March 17 Green Energy News

Headline News:

President Donald Trump released a $1.1 trillion budget outline that makes good on a series of campaign promises, including cutting EPA by about one-third. Asked about the cuts to climate change-related programs, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said those programs are “a waste of your money.” [CNN]

Damage after Hurricane Katrina (Photo: LSUsoccerbum, Wikimedia Commons)

Under the president’s 2018 budget blueprint, the program that put recovery money into local hands after Hurricanes Sandy, Katrina, Rita and Wilma would be zeroed-out, raising questions about how readily the cash would be available when the next disaster strikes and what oversight would be in place to ensure it is not misused. [CNN]
Thirty cities are responding to the dangerous Trump policies that ignore the potentials of climate change by announcing interest in a $10 billion electric vehicle purchase. Bringing joint bargaining power to the table, they have been in talks with automakers to jointly purchase approximately 114,000 electric vehicles. [CleanTechnica]
Avangrid Renewables has won the 1.5-GW Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, offshore wind lease auction with a bid of $9,066,650. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has raised more than $58 million in six competitive lease sales so far, including a record-breaking $42.5 million paid by Statoil for the 1-GW New York lease area. [reNews]
Pacific Gas & Electric Co expects to lose about 7.3% of its electric load this year, and possibly 21% by 2020, to community choice aggregators, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The same shift may also eventually account for 40% of the total load at San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison. [BloombergQuint]

Henry Harrell"s Blog