http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/aug/27/henderson-power-plant-close/

Henderson power plant to close

By Chuck Stinnett (Contact)
Originally published 07:35 a.m., August 27, 2008
Updated 07:35 a.m., August 27, 2008

Citing rising costs and mounting environmental regulations, Henderson Municipal Power and Light plans to close its 58-year-old Station One power plant on Water Street on or before Dec. 31, the utility announced.

HMP&L said it told the 13 full-time employees at the plant Tuesday morning that it will work with them to identify future employment opportunities at HMP&L, the city of Henderson or the city’s Station Two power plant.

“There are constantly openings at Station Two and other plants out there” that might be willing to hire experienced power plant operators from Station One, HMP&L General Manager Gary Quick said.

The city utility said the plant isn’t feasible to continue operating because of increasing air quality regulations and rising costs of maintenance and operations.

The closing was approved by the Henderson Utility Commission on Monday night following a closed executive session in which possible legal issues associating with shutting down Station One were discussed.

“It wasn’t any surprise” to the employees, Quick said. “But it’s really difficult to swallow. We’ve got several employees with over 20 years of service. It’s difficult.”

Nearly three years ago, Dr. Bill Smith, chairman of the Henderson Utility Commission, said Station One had “a limited life” of three years or perhaps a little longer. Then-mayor Henry Lackey agreed with that assessment.

For the past year, HMP&L had been leaving vacancies unfilled at the Station One.

“We have 11 unfilled positions” at the plant, Quick said.

“It was a skeleton crew,” he said.

HMP&L supplemented that small work force this summer — when Station One is operated to meet peak demand brought on by heavy air conditioning use — with three temporary employees and workers temporarily transferred from the utility’s transmission and distribution department.

Some of the recent resignations reportedly were prompted by workers concerned about the future of the power plant who were looking for more secure opportunities elsewhere.

HMP&L and the Henderson Utility Commission now must face a couple of key issues: Read the rest of this entry »

The Business, Technology and Politics of Colorado’s Energy Industry

August 24th, 2008

XCEL GETS GO AHEAD TO CLOSE PLANTS

By Paul Baker

http://coloradoenergynews.com/2008/08/xcel-to-replace-coal-plants-with-renewables/

DENVER - August has been a month of headline-making news for Xcel Energy and the utility giant may have saved the most important for last. Following two days worth of discussions last week, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) backed the power company’s voluntary decision to close two coal-fired plants at Denver and Grand Junction, making Xcel the first utility in the U.S. to make such a move solely in an effort to reduce emissions. Read the rest of this entry »

Senator Joe Biden on Energy

Joe Biden on Alternate Energy

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/24/nevada-neighbors-turn-ideas-economies/

WINNING THE WEST:

Nevada neighbors turn ideas into economies

In Colorado, universities cultivate research to grow companies

LEILA NAVIDI

Colorado State’s Engine and Energy Conversion Lab in Fort Collins is in an old power plant the city leases to the university. Lab Associate Director Morgan DeFoort, above, opens the door of an algae growing area of Solix Biofuels, a company housed in the lab. Algae are 80 percent oil by mass and can be used for fuel after processing.

By J. Patrick Coolican, Joe Schoenmann
Sun, Aug 24, 2008 (2 a.m.)
FORT COLLINS, COLO. — W. S. Sampath was at a loss. The Indian-born professor of engineering at Colorado State University had just been told that he had a great idea for manufacturing solar panels more cheaply but he needed a business plan to turn it into something that would sell.

“I didn’t know what a business plan was,” Sampath said, sitting in an office where the decor — shabby, absent-minded professor without the charm — lent his statement ample support. Sampath conceded that he needed the help; he sometimes speaks in totally inscrutable scientific jargon.

Luckily for Sampath, someone else at the university knew business plans.

Hunt Lambert, now vice president for economic development at Colorado State, had been a venture capitalist and a start-up company junkie who’d also held big posts at U.S. West, the telecommunications company. Lambert lent his expertise to Sampath and even found the fledgling company a chief executive. They in turn introduced Sampath to investors.

A year ago the company had four employees. Now it has 79, and next year the payroll will swell to 500 when a manufacturing plant opens in Longmont, not far from here. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/24/summing-summit-no-grand-plan-many-ideas/

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY:

Summing up the summit: No grand plan, but many ideas

Experts ferret out faults, including in Pickens’ plan

STEVE MARCUS
T. Boone Pickens, from left, shown with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; John Podesta, President of the Center for American Action Fund; and UNLV President David Ashley, has proposed building windmills in Texas to free natural gas now used to generate electricity for use as a motor vehicle fuel to cut consumption of foreign oil in the United States.

By Phoebe Sweet

Sun, Aug 24, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Face to Face: Energy Debate

STEVE MARCUS
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, foreground, gives a hug to former President Bill Clinton during the opening session of the National Clean Energy Summit on Monday at the Cox Pavilion.

STEVE MARCUS

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano says fossil fuel industries get too much federal money and a level playing field for renewables would make them cost-competitive.

Experts from across the country converged on Las Vegas armed with a variety of plans, so Reid instead left with dozens of ideas, ranging from world-altering to underwhelming.

The Sun asked the utility industry, environmental experts and the politically savvy to weigh in and tell us which ones are probable, which ones are possible and which ones are likely to end up on the cutting room floor, no matter how brilliant they might be. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.lvrj.com/home_and_garden/27218004.html

Thinking, living locally should help green Nevada

Steve Rypka

Aug. 21, 2008

The greening of Nevada is under way, but the ultimate goal of true sustainability is no easy task. Even so, there is a simple and very powerful concept that can guide us much of the way: localization. By its very nature, it applies to everyone and could have a profound impact on our homes, making them more affordable, independent and self-sufficient.

Localization means doing as many things as possible as close to home as we can. It also means learning to respect and work within the environmental boundaries of our region. Here are some examples:

* Local food production improves freshness, reduces transportation cost and lessens environmental impacts.

* Rooftop solar energy cuts transmission losses, reduces the burden on the grid, lowers CO2 emissions and saves water.

* Using locally available water more efficiently eliminates the need for massive, expensive and damaging systems designed to take it from distant areas that already depend on it.

* Working closer to home reduces commuting time, saves money and provides more time with family.

* Frequenting locally owned businesses improves our economy, keeping dollars circulating in the community.

The impacts of peak oil will have far-reaching effects on almost everything we currently take for granted. As we transition to a post-carbon world, localization will help fill the gaps created by rising fuel prices or scarcity.

Here’s what I think Southern Nevada could look like in 20 years or so. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/19/three-years-later-challenge-renewed/
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY:

Three years later, challenge renewed

As some see progress on renewables, Clinton gives pep talk

STEVE MARCUS
Former President Clinton says at the National Clean Energy Summit at Cox Pavilion on Monday that Nevada has the “natural capacity” to become the nation’s leader in renewable energy by taking advantage of its geothermal resources and building wind turbines and solar plants.

Video of Clinton’s speech

By Phoebe Sweet
Tue, Aug 19, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Three years ago, Bill Clinton issued his first challenge to Nevada business leaders to make the state a mecca for renewable energy companies, and they can point to some evidence they took him seriously.

Since 2005, two of the world’s largest solar plants have opened in Southern Nevada. A Detroit-style manufacturing facility for solar plant components opened near the Strip. This year, the state’s largest utility company touted Nevada’s place at No. 1 in solar and geothermal power sold per capita, announced several projects that will harness the power of steam, sun and wind over the next half-decade and will, for the first time, comply with a state law requiring it to purchase a percentage of its power from renewable resource providers.

But up for debate even among industry boosters is whether adequate progress has been made toward the bold vision Clinton outlined.

Monday night, when Clinton again addressed a Las Vegas audience regarding the power of a green energy economy, he reemphasized that Nevada is uniquely positioned to become energy self-sufficient by taking advantage of its geothermal resources and by building wind turbines and large solar plants in the state’s ample “blank space.”

“There should be one state that proves you can do it — and it should be you and it could be you,” he said, peering over his reading glasses at the several hundred people in UNLV’s Cox Pavilion.

“If you could do it, no one else would doubt that it can be done,” Clinton said. “You have the natural capacity to do it …

“Maybe what you ought to come out of this conference with is a proposal to have the national government and investors all over America … say, ‘Help make us the first completely self-sufficient, clean energy state in the U.S.’ I promise, if you did it, it would rock the world.” Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/20/green-can-fatten-nevadans-wallets-too/

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY:
Green can fatten Nevadans’ wallets, too

That’s what summit speakers stress in advocating massive investments

STEVE MARCUS
Johnnie Stoker, left, president and chief executive of Henderson-based K2 Energy Solutions, shows off an electric HST Shelby Cobra to Kelvin Woods and Joseph Born at the National Clean Energy Summit on Tuesday. The car is equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries and can travel from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, Stoker said.

By Phoebe Sweet
Wed, Aug 20, 2008 (2 a.m.)

That was the message Tuesday from academics, business leaders, governors and other politicians to more than 1,000 attendees at the National Clean Energy Summit at UNLV.

The tone was set in the morning by T. Boone Pickens, a Texan famous for making billions in the oil industry. He is spending $58 million of his own money touting a plan to use a 4,000-megawatt wind farm to free up natural gas for use by trucks and buses. Pickens said the country is “getting close to a disaster” by spending $700 billion a year on foreign oil.

“Critics say, ‘That’s commerce. We’re buying something and we’re getting something … exchanging money for goods,’ ” Pickens said. “If I can exchange that money for goods in America, that’s commerce.”

He added that if he can also create jobs, tax revenue and economic development while lessening the country’s reliance on volatile Middle Eastern countries for oil, that, too, would be commerce.

Emcee Rose McKinney James said the Chinese word for crisis — as in energy crisis — is made up of the two characters for danger and opportunity.

The summit sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called this energy crisis — which many speakers say is the worst since lines formed at gas stations in the ’70s — an “enormous economic opportunity” if handled the right way. Among the potential benefits, he said, are hundreds of thousands of new jobs and billions saved on American electricity bills.

It was a theme echoed throughout the day.

Jim Murren, president and chief operating officer of MGM Mirage, said conservation and green initiatives can save businesses money and serve as a good marketing tool.

Van Jones, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and founder of Green for All, said green initiatives — especially conservation measures — will also help the poorest Americans by lowering their electricity rates and bills and providing new skilled jobs.

Danny Thompson, executive director and treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said solar projects in the valley are already providing jobs for Las Vegas workers.

Somer Hollingsworth, executive director of the Nevada Development Authority, said more projects in the pipeline will help spur economic development in a region traditionally reliant on the tourism industry. Hollingsworth said he is in talks with at least three solar developers who want to build projects in Nevada, including BrightSource Energy, Solar Millenium and El Dorado Energy. The three companies want to build more than 465 megawatts of solar power, he said. That’s enough power to supply more than 350,000 homes.

State Sen. Dina Titus said the $6 billion to $8 billion Nevada spends on energy every year could be kept in the state if it developed its solar, wind and geothermal resources. Keeping that money in Nevada would also create jobs, as it has at Nevada-based geothermal company Ormat, which employed eight people in 1984 and today is the third-largest geothermal company in the country, employing more than 200 people.

“It really is a win, win, win. The environment is better, the economy is better, national security is better … We should be doing it in a hurry,” Titus said.

But before these predictions can come true, Reid and other speakers said, it will take action by state and federal governments, investment by private business and possibly a new president in the White House. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/19/rising-costs-cheer-coal-plant-foes/

DAILY MEMO: ENERGY:

Rising costs cheer coal plant foes

Economics, not pollution concerns, hamper Ely project, but that’s fine with environmentalists

STEVE MARCUS
Michael Yackira, right, president and chief executive of Sierra Pacific Resources, chats with Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, during the June grand opening of a plant that manufactures components for solar thermal power systems. The Sierra chief says the future of a coal project near Ely is uncertain.

By Phoebe Sweet
Tue, Aug 19, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Nevada’s environmental commission gathered in the fall in Carson City to consider a request from environmental groups to stop granting permits for new coal-fired power plants.
Environmentalists feared what they saw as an unfaltering march toward approval of all three proposed in the state. The enviros mounted a traditional argument: The plants would generate enough power for almost 3 million homes, but would also emit more than 30 million tons of greenhouse gases every year for 50 years.

To date, little evidence exists that those arguments will prevail. But it’s beginning to look as if other realities just might, at least with one plant.

Sierra Pacific Resources, parent company of Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power, continues pushing for a 1,500-megawatt, $5 billion coal plant near Ely. The company announced in November that it could meet the surging short-term demands of Southern Nevada by moving up construction of one gas-fired power plant and buying another. Executives referred to delays to the Ely coal plant. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.richmondregister.com/localnews/local_story_232082411.html

League wants halt on coal power

Ronica Shannon

Register News Writer

The national and local chapters of the League of Women Voters have called for a 10-year moratorium on new coal-fired power plants that possibly could clean energy solutions both locally and nationally.

A coal-fired power plant is a conventional power plant that burns pulverized coal to produce steam which, in turn, powers a turbine to produce electricity, according to the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization found in California in 1892.

“Central Kentuckians suffer some of the worst air quality in the nation due to pollution from coal-fired power plants and inefficient use of the electricity we get from these facility,” said Elizabeth Crowe, president of the League of Women Voters of Berea and Madison County.

“Dirty air results in poor health, whereas clean energy from renewable sources like solar and wind, plus using electricity more efficiently in the first place, preserve our health and the environment, and can spur economic development as well,” she said.

Disappearing glaciers, rising sea levels, severe heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, floods and wildfires are all signs of global warming, according to the official nine-page moratorium of the national league. Read the rest of this entry »