March 23 Green Energy News

Headline News:

• “Wood pellets: Renewable, but not carbon neutral” • In the race to meet clean energy standards, biomass energy is often touted as carbon neutral. To satisfy European Union demand, forests in the United States are clear-cut and turned into wood pellets and shipped overseas, to the tune of 7 million metric tons of pellets annually. [Phys.Org]

Mountains in the southern US (Credit: David Allen)

• Global energy demand increased by 2.1% in 2017 at more than twice the previous year’s rate. At the same time, carbon emissions increased for the first time since 2014, jumping by 1.4%. These are the two key messages from the International Energy Agency’s newest resource, the Global Energy and CO2 Status Report, 2017. [CleanTechnica]
• Congress passed a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill after Republicans, in order to get needed Democratic support, agreed to remove provisions that would have gutted environmental and campaign finance laws. EPA funding was not reduced, and the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy saw an increase. [InsideClimate News]
• Environment Massachusetts says the state has the potential to generate more offshore wind energy than any other on the East Coast. They released a report that said if wind turbines were placed in every suitable location off the coast of Massachusetts, they could generate nearly 20 times more electricity than the state used in 2016. [Rhode Island Public Radio]
• “California Utilities Say Climate Change Caused Recent Fires, Not Them” • California’s largest public utility companies are defending themselves against lawsuits claiming they were negligent in the way they dealt with debris and brush under power lines. The utilities insist the culprit is climate change and fossil fuels companies. [CleanTechnica]
• The development of coal-fired power plants continues to fall, with new construction down by 73% between 2015 and 2017, thanks in large part to tighter restrictions in China and a lack of private financing in India. Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and Coal Swarm found a 41% drop in newly completed coal plants in the same time. [CleanTechnica]

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March 23 Green Energy News posted first on Green Energy Times