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California regulators threw a lifeline Thursday to the struggling Ivanpah solar plant, which has failed to generate the electricity it is required to produce under contracts with PG&E Corp.

State gas taxes vary widely. The highest state gas tax is assessed in Pennsylvania, at 50.4 cents per gallon, with Washington State (44.5 cpg) and New York (42.64 cpg) following closely behind. Alaska drivers pay the lowest rate in the country at 12.25 cents per gallon. These figures do not include the 18.4 cpg federal gas tax.

“”What Musk has done that is creative and important is drive the learning curve. He’s decided to take an existing, pretty powerful battery technology and start producing it on a very large scale,”” she said.
“”But it’s not technology innovation in the sense of creating new ways of doing it. We are pretty well convinced that some of our technologies have the potential to be significantly better,”” Williams said.

Too many greens get caught up in the trap of advocating for the subsidization of current-generation renewable energy projects, neglecting to understand that in doing so they’re consigning governments to continue propping up technologies incapable of competing with fossil fuels on their own merit while diverting valuable funds away from the pursuit of more lasting solutions. . . Gates’ focus on R&D is both smart and necessary, and it could pave the way towards a greener future.

The state has a good cap and trade system, Robert Stavins said, but some of its other environmental policies are weakening it. He pointed to a rule known as the low carbon fuel standard, which is supposed to increase production of clean fuels. Environmental advocates consider it a complement to the cap and trade program that makes industry pay for emitting carbon; Stavins had other words.

DWP officials have been campaigning for the $330-million water rate hike and a $720-million power rate increase for the last several months. They say the revenue is necessary to replace aging water mains and develop more local water supplies. On the power side, officials estimate that about 80% of new revenue would go toward meeting clean energy and climate change mandates.

A new generation of innovators is pioneering the future of nuclear energy in partnership with ourNational Labs. Citizens and policymakers leading the global transition to a low-carbon economy are focusing efforts on developing — and building — advanced nuclear reactors. To support these efforts, the Department of Energy is working to forge key partnerships and support a culture of nuclear innovation driven by this new generation of scientists, university researchers, entrepreneurs and investors.

The EU is set to emit 2bn tonnes more CO2 than it promised at the Paris climate talks, threatening an agreement to cap global warming at 2C, a note from the European commission has revealed.

The slide in California’s gasoline prices could abruptly end Friday, with prices possibly jumping 30 cents a gallon because of seasonal changes in the state’s refinery operations, a consumer group predicted Thursday.

Last year, 6 million tonnes of “wood pellets” harvested from forests in Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Virginia were shipped across the Atlantic, to be burnt in renewable “biomass” power plants. This was almost double the 2013 figure—the US “wood pellet” industry is booming.

In the wake of a massive acquisition binge gone wrong and a stock that’s plummeted in recent months, beleaguered clean energy company SunEdison is closing factories and cutting jobs in an attempt to right itself.

By all accounts, 2016 should be a great year for solar power. . . But investors are not feeling the love. This week shares of U.S. solar leader SolarCity tumbled to a new low, while several other solar companies also took a pounding.

A series of studies by Tsinghua University, whose alumni includes the incumbent president, showed electric vehicles charged in China produce two to five times as much particulate matter and chemicals that contribute to smog versus petrol-engine cars. Hybrid vehicles fare little better.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a federal rule that calls for payments to businesses, schools and other large energy consumers that reduce their electricity usage at times of peak demand.

City officials have “no choice” but to increase electricity rates, since the majority of the rate hike revenue would go toward complying with state mandates to switch to renewable energy sources, he [Board President Levine] said.