Around this time last year, I founded a new organization with a big ambition and a simple strategy: protect and expand access to cheap and clean power, a critical driver of environmental progress.
I'm writing now to reflect back on an extraordinary year, give you a peek into what's coming in 2017, and invite you to become a founding member of Environmental Progress.
Here's a look back at the year.
Read MoreOne-quarter to two-thirds of all U.S. nuclear plant reactors are at-risk of being closed prematurely, according to a new analysis by Environmental Progress. If half are closed and replaced with natural gas, the additional carbon emissions would be the equivalent of adding roughly 50 million cars to the road.
But 20 percent fewer nuclear reactors are at risk of closure now than at the beginning of 2016 thanks to policies implemented by New York and Illinois governments to recognize the environmental value of nuclear energy
Read MoreI am very happy to announce the publication of an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump and Governor Rick Perry, urging them to unite Americans and the world around an inspiring new vision: making nuclear great again. Co-authors include climate scientists, climate skeptics, and scholars from American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution. At a time when America is more divided than ever, nuclear stands out in its ability to unites liberals, conservatives and a growing number of environmentalists.
Read MoreCalifornia already suffers from "single-fuel dependency" that could increase the state's vulnerabilities during "extreme weather conditions," says the association of electric grid operators in a new report.
"Natural-gas-fired generation comprises 68 percent of on-peak anticipated capacity [in California] by 2021," the National Electric Reliability Council (NERC) notes.
And that high level of dependence on natural gas would increase if California closes its last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2024/25.
Already, California gets 66 percent of its in-state electricity from natural gas — an amount that rose from 58 percent in 2011, and could rise to 74 percent if Diablo Canyon is closed.
Read MoreOur statement on big Illinois victory:
"The Illinois victory shows that while we still have a long way to go toward protecting and expanding nuclear. Nobody has a realistic vision for expanding rather than merely maintaining nuclear energy.
The US could lose half of our reactors in the next 13 years, and yet many of the institutions that should be fighting the hardest to save nuclear plants are doing remarkably little.
The lesson from Illinois is that for the situation to change, the key institutions — both pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear — must change first."
Read More“It’s sad to see the effort by Food and Water Watch to close New York’s largest source of clean power, nuclear energy. If their efforts succeed, they will increase fossil fuel burning, pollution, asthma, and premature deaths. With its campaign, Food and Water Watch has established itself as the most anti-environmental of all of the anti-nuclear groups operating in New York state. Thank goodness Governor Cuomo is exhibiting good common sense on this matter.”
Read MoreWhen PG&E announced the deal it had secretly negotiated with anti-nuclear groups to close Diablo Canyon, California's last nuclear plant, it claimed rates would not rise. NRDC, one of the parties to the proposal, went further, claiming "PG&E customers will save at least a billion dollars by replacing Diablo Canyon."
Now, PG&E admits that the closure would cost $1.8 billion, and that rates would rise immediately after if gets approval from the state's Public Utilities Commission.
Hours after the deal was announced on June 21, Environmental Progress was the first to point out that "The proposal would increase electricity rates," in a statement, as well as on a conference call and in conversations with reporters.
There's no point in sugar-coating what happened. PG&E and NRDC deliberately lied to the public and the media.
Read MoreGiven Kari's line of questioning, I finally asked her who funds her work.
Kari said there was a "fire wall" between her reporting and the corporate donations.
After she emailed me again last night, asking about my donors, I got so fed up that I decided to do some digging.
Would you be shocked to learn her employer, Midwest Energy News, which is run by Fresh Energy, takes money from both fossil and renewable energy companies?
I interviewed her about all of this today.
I think Kari means well, but there are some troubling findings here — findings I only inadvertently discovered because of her lack of awareness of the double standard she is prosecuting against those she disagrees with.
Read MoreSan Francisco, California — Legendary climate scientist James Hansen will join Assembly Member Mike Gatto to call for reforms of California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) after it meets today.
"What's up with Governor Brown?” asked Hansen. “He killed reform legislation that require the same transparency as other state agencies, and allow appeals to the regular court, not the corrupt PUC courts. Something is rotten about energy policy in Sacramento — and the losers are ratepayers and young people."
Gatto has said he will continue to fight for reforms and says he will seek a ballot initiative if the legislature fails to act. “The fight for CPUC reform is not over, and I remain committed to continuing the efforts that are sorely needed to bring transparency to the process, help keep rates low, and ensure the safety of Californians,” said Gatto.
“The last time CPUC forced a nuclear plant to close the result was a federal criminal investigation, skyrocketing pollution and higher electricity rates,” said Environmental Progress founder, Michael Shellenberger. “Now CPUC is trying to do the same thing. No CPUC proceedings on Diablo Canyon should go forward without real reforms.”
Read MoreA former Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) attorney now working for Friends of the Earth (FOE) has threatened action by California Public Utilities Commission against Environmental Progress for our efforts to expose back-room dealing-making at the scandal-racked agency.
Forced to leave the Commission after one of the individuals he was threatening spoke out publicly against it, Lindh is once again back to threatening individuals and demanding secrecy.
Why is secrecy so important? Because the Commission is corrupt to the core, because the anti-nuclear views of its "rulers" are unscientific and plain nutty, and the deal to close down California's single largest source of power couldn't be dirtier.
Which is why it will fail when exposed to repeated doses of sunlight.
Read MoreA Department of Energy (DOE) Task Force has just backed a key demand made over the last eight months by climate scientists and environmentalists organized by Environmental Progress: that the federal government end policy discrimination against nuclear power that is causing our clean energy crisis.
In calling for a price on carbon or the temporary support for nuclear, the DOE task force is acknowledging that energy production tax credits are not the ideal, long-term solution, but should be given temporarily to save America's largest source of clean power.
The federal government has subsidized wind energy production at a similar level for 23 years.
Read More
The anti-nuclear lobbying firm, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is defending as legitimate the false cost data provided by Pacific Gas & Electric to the California Public Utilities Commission.
Cavanagh's proposal that the California people just trust PG&E's numbers — after everything that's happened with PG&E and the CPUC over the last five years — is offensive.
Read MoreA California anti-nuclear group has apparently dropped its powerful attorney after Environmental Progress reported on his still-unexplained involvement with an aspect of the settlement for the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), which is currently under criminal investigation.
Read MoreIn a Protest with the California Public Utilities Commission, the Sierra Club — which has been anti-nuclear since the early 1970s — says closing California's last nuclear plant could increase carbon emissions and efforts to replace it with other forms of clean energy could be "illusory."
Is this a sign that the Club is sincere about carbon emissions? Or just more public relations to reassure the public that it cares about climate change — and not just tearing down nuclear plants?
Read MoreEnvironmental Progress has discovered that the core assumption being made in Pacific Gas & Electric's (PG&E) proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to raise electricity rates is contradicted by California state officials and by PG&E's own consultant.
CP also finds that achieving California's new climate target will requiring reducing emissions seven times faster between now and 2030 than it did between 2000 and 2014 — all while California's population and electricity demand are likely to grow at least 13 percent.
EP's investigation and analysis of emissions and energy data were done as part of EP's Protest [pdf] filed September 15, 2016 with the California Public Utilities Commission.
Read MoreWhich is it? Did Geesman talk about the research center, as he told the SD Union Tribune last year, or did he just listen to Peevey, as he claims above?
The answer matters because from the first moment that Peevey laid out settlement terms to Southern California Edison in Poland, which included a $5 - 10 million line item for a research center, Peevey was insisting that Geesman be involved.
Yesterday Environmental Progress introduced a motion [pdf] and exhibits to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) arguing that it should suspend action on Pacific Gas & Electric's proposal to close California's largest source of clean energy, Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, until:
EP's motion comes:
The language from the motion [pdf] follows below. Exhibits are here.
Read MoreClimate scientist James Hansen, Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand and other scientists and environmentalists are urging Governor Jerry Brown to let the state legislature, not the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) decide the fate of Diablo Canyon, which provides 21 percent of the state's clean power.
