Photo by Alan Stark, used under a Creative Commons license. 

With the Trump Administration clear on its intentions to repeal and replace the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan (CPP), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on August 21 finally released its "Affordable Clean Energy" proposal. Given the name, one might expect the so-called ACE rule to lean on current market trends toward low- and non-emitting advanced energy technologies, such as natural gas, solar, wind, and energy efficiency, on the basis of cost. That’s what the CPP attempted to do, doubling down on these trends and allowing states to design compliance plans using market-based trading to find the lowest-cost paths to compliance. ACE, in contrast, takes a hard turn away from lower-cost advanced energy options and market-based trading in favor of old-fashioned command-and-control regulation that would only allow costly investments at existing coal-fired power plants—which is bad news for consumers and the advanced energy industry alike.  

Massachusetts State House, photo by ctj71081, used under a Creative Commons license. 

This is a guest post from the Northeast Clean Energy Council, AEE’s regional partner. For more information on AEE’s State Coalition, click here.

It was a long and hard-fought two-year legislative session in Massachusetts, and the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC), AEE’s regional partner, was in the trenches on behalf of its members throughout. On the heels of landmark energy legislation in 2016, and with numerous other high-priority items on the agenda for legislators, clean energy faced a real risk of falling by the wayside before the session ended on July 31. However, a final push by a broad coalition of clean energy, environmental, healthcare, and business advocates helped legislative champions propel a strong, though incomplete, package of clean energy provisions over the finish line on the final day.

As California legislators raced to beat the proverbial “pumpkin” at midnight last Friday, the advanced energy community closed out a remarkable legislative session with a host of significant wins – but left one notable issue to be addressed in the next session. With bills spanning advanced transportation, energy efficiency, energy storage, resource adequacy, wildfire mitigation, direct access to renewable energy, and microgrids, the session seemed to have something for everyone. AEE was at the heart of action in Sacramento, with an active position on over 15 bills this year – and an impressive record of success.

On August 23, AEE and regional partner Interwest Energy Alliance held candidate roundtables in New Mexico with Democratic U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham and staff of Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce. The businesses participating in the roundtable represented a diverse set of advanced energy technologies, including solar, wind, and storage. The group shared its vision to make New Mexico a more competitive and attractive state for advanced energy businesses.

On August 8, Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) held a second gubernatorial candidate roundtable in Florida with Democrat Philip Levine, a businessman and former Mayor of Miami Beach. The businesses participating in the roundtable represented a diverse set of advanced energy technologies, including renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs). The conversation was focused on strengthening the advanced energy industry in Florida, which now employs more than 160,000 people across the state. The group shared its vision to make Florida a more competitive state for attracting advanced energy businesses and provided insight on how the governor can work with stakeholders to make Florida’s grid more secure and resilient to natural disasters.