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SALT LAKE CITY — Its own analysis that shows 60 percent of its coal-fired power plant units are more costly to run than shutter is prompting PacifiCorp to request additional time to review their potential operational life. The December request for a delay before the Public Service Commission involves the depreciation schedule for power plant units it operates in six …

Government strategy to make ‘polluter pay’, with penalties for difficult to recycle items. Retailers and producers of packaging will be forced to pay the full cost of collecting and recycling it under the government’s new waste strategy. Supermarkets and other retailers could be charged penalties for putting difficult to recycle packaging – such as black plastic trays – on the market …

Advancing efficient and equitable approaches to update the utility business model—motivated by emerging technological, policy, and market conditions in the electric power sector—is crucial to the grid’s transition to a more secure, clean, affordable, customer-centric system. Powerful trends are impacting the contours of the electric system, including growing policy demands for improved environmental performance, the increasingly widespread availability of distributed …

The scorecard provides a benchmark of state energy policy and progress. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has released its 2018 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. For the second year in a row, Massachusetts is ranked number one and California number two. The two states shared the ranking of number one in 2016, and this battle to be the top state goes …

Seven years ago, Spain was on the way to becoming a world leader in renewable energy, but after the election in late 2011 of a People’s party government seen by critics as hostile to the sector, there was little or no progress. While Spain has significant land and offshore shale gas and oil reserves, environmentalists and local authorities have blocked …

Research indicates that green certification lowers the cost of capital for real estate investors, according to a recent column at GlobeSt. The reasoning is that certified buildings have a more attractive risk profile and may be more resilient during tough economic times, according to Dr. Nils Kok, associate professor at Maastricht University, the article says. Some studies have shown that commercial mortgages for …

The West Coast Electric Highway—one of the longest electrified corridors in the world—is demonstrating that electric vehicles are here for the long haul. In 2008, the West Coast states of California, Oregon, Washington and the province of British Columbia all recognized a simple, but alarming fact: western North America was experiencing significant population growth. That meant tens of thousands more …

Energy providers are in a unique position in the marketplace in that they want customers to use less of their product. Yet, encouraging them to do so can be a challenge. When customers use electricity, they’re thinking about the task (use a computer, wash clothes, watch TV) they want to accomplish, not the source that’s allowing them to do it. …

Scientists have figured out a way to harvest water from dry desert air using only the sun’s heat. The device could be a game-changer for the approximately 2.1 billion people around the world who lack immediate access to clean drinking water. The device is made of a porous material called a metal-organic framework (MOF) that’s housed within a clear plastic …

When electric vehicles transform the auto-driven landscape of the United States, what will low-to-moderate-income communities do? A new report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, “The Future of Transportation Electrification: Utility, Industry and Consumer Perspectives,” evaluated this accelerating controversy and emerged with some solutions. “Aren’t electric vehicles just for the wealthy?” said Jenifer Bosco, staff attorney at National Consumer Law Center …