As we collectively adjust to a new normal amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to also celebrate good news in Iowa. As a member of the Iowa Conservative Energy Forum, I’d like to congratulate all the stakeholders that met over the past year to find a compromise on solar energy policy that works for all Iowans. Senate File 583 was recently signed into law by Governor Reynolds after passing unanimously in both the state House and Senate. This important legislation provides consistency, reliability and the opportunity for solar energy to continue to grow in Iowa.

A series of “energy freedom” bills, which would allow customers to diversify energy generation and usage is before the Michigan Legislature.  For this week’s “Issues of the Environment,” WEMU’s David Fair talks with Ed Rivet, executive director of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum, about a new strategy to move the measures forward. 

A new Texas energy source is figuratively (and literally) just over the horizon.

We are all too familiar with the hot Texas sun that can easily fry an egg on the sidewalk and sends us running into air conditioning. But that heat is energy, and with it comes the ability to generate the same electricity needed to drive those air conditioners we rely on to stay sane. And Texas sure has a lot of heat.

After construction of two additional reactor units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station ended in 2017 with billions of dollars of debt, 5,000 people out of work and no new reactors, lawmakers jumped to investigate what had happened. Now, fewer than three years later, South Carolina is being seen by some as a model for how bipartisan clean energy legislation can be accomplished in a conservative state.

Last month, I proudly joined Conservatives for Clean Energy as their new Florida Director. Our group was founded in North Carolina in 2014 to educate the public and decision-makers on the economic benefits of clean energy and advocate for continued investments across the Southeast.

Electric automaker Tesla settled a lawsuit with the state that will allow sales and service in Michigan.

Applauding the move is the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum. Kevin Essebaggers talks with MICEF Executive Director Ed Rivet about the Tesla development, and what it’s like being a conservative group lobbying for renewable energy solutions.

In early February, the Senate Business and Finance Committee convened to discuss interim charges on energy tasked by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Texas is an energy-only market — wherein energy producers are paid only after they provide power. 

Many have probably now seen the picture, shared widely on social media, of wind turbine blades being buried in a landfill in Wyoming. The picture highlights a legitimate challenge to wind energy, especially as costs continue to fall and deployment of wind increases across the country. Importantly those challenges, one of them highlighted here, are not a reason to walk away from the table.

Many Republicans in Western states believe in conservation, in part, because they are hunters and anglers, said Greg Brophy, Colorado director for The Western Way, a right-leaning conservation group. His assertion is backed up by the recent poll, which found 69% of voters across all eight states identify as conservationists.

Expanded renewable energy law, long-term utility planning or targets set by the governor are all on the table.

Michigan’s renewable energy standard has helped spur utility investments in clean energy over the past decade, but that may end after next year when the state targets level off at 15% renewable generation.