Sierra Club
A flurry of clean-energy victories in the heartland and up and down the East Coast have put an exclamation point on 2014 and brought the year to a gratifying close for the Sierra Club and renewable energy activists in a half-dozen states and Washington, D.C.
Holly Bender, deputy director of the Club's Beyond Coal campaign in the Midwest, sends this dispatch:
Some of you may remember all the way back to the first week of 2014, when we announced a big wind victory in Missouri. Kansas City Power and Light had just announced 400 megawatts (MW) of new wind as a result of negotiations with our Missouri team.
I'm proud to say that the heartland is book-ending 2014 with two new big clean energy announcements in Nebraska and Kansas.
First, Lincoln Electric System (LES) just announced that it will purchase another 175 MW of wind (split between Kansas and Nebraska) to bring the utility to 48 percent clean energy. In addition, the utility is building a 5 MW solar farm, by far the largest investment in solar in the state. LES estimates that its wind purchase will save customers $300 million and will reduce the utility's reliance on coal from 85 percent to 34 percent. The Beyond Coal campaign and the Club's Nebraska Chapter have been working in Lincoln for several years, with advocacy focused on LES CEO Kevin Wailes and the 9-member appointed board.
Second, Westar announced this week that it would purchase 200 MW of wind to achieve 20 percent renewables, and compliance with the state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) five years ahead of schedule. In Kansas, both Westar and Kansas City Power and Light have achieved the state's RPS goals much earlier than expected, and have continued to commit to wind in part due to the hard work of local activists, led by the Sierra Club's Kansas Chapter, who have defied all odds to protect the RPS from attacks since the moment it was passed.
During this time of reflection and celebration, I am full of gratitude for the amazing people I work with who have helped achieve these, and many other victories through this year.
Many congratulations to the Central region on your stellar victories on wind at the end of the year! It has also been a clean energy finish to 2014 in the East, led by nearly 200 MW of solar power announcements this week.
To wit, Mark Kresowick, deputy director of Beyond Coal in the Eastern region, reports:
It has also been a clean energy finish to 2014 in the East, led by nearly 200 MW of solar power announcements this week. Team New York has already shared the 122 MW of solar power procured by the Long Island Power Authority. What we haven't yet had a chance to share were three Georgia rural electric cooperatives committing to buy the power from a 131 MW solar project developed by Southern Company, including Cobb EMC purchasing 77 percent of that total.
Cobb EMC's participation in the proposed Plant Washington coal plant goes back many years. Cobb EMC was at the center of both the proposed coal plant and corruption scandals, including the indictment of CEO Dwight Brown (whose case has gone to the Georgia Supreme Court twice already before any actual trial). The Sierra Club, including the Georgia Chapter, organizer Seth Gunning, countless volunteers, and our partners, helped highlight the need for change at the large co-op, and over the course of multiple board elections reformers won out. Those board members dropped the proposed coal plant in 2012, and have now moved forward with more than 100 MW of solar power. As our Eastern Region leader Vanessa Pierce said: "This decision shows that a move toward democracy within a co-op can end up having huge, substantive, and lasting impacts."
Jacksonville, Florida's, municipal utility JEA made its own big solar announcement this week, committing to increase the amount of solar on their system to 50 MW, including a mix of utility scale, community shared projects, and continued net metering for rooftop panels. For years, Florida Sierra Club members and Jacksonville community leaders including Northeast Florida Group energy chair Tom Larson have participated in regular dialogues with JEA management about their clean energy commitments.
Meanwhile, the Club's Washington, D.C., Chapter and partners culminated more than 1.5 years of advocacy on December 17 with final passage of the DC Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard Amendment Act of 2014, which removes black liquor and wood waste from eligibility for the District's renewable energy requirements. These dirty sources of energy have met more than two-thirds of DC's renewable energy standard over the last few years, turning what should be a policy to deliver clean energy to the nation's capitol into little more than a ratepayer subsidy for business as usual. That subsidy for dirty power is now ending. Congratulations to chapter staff member Brenna Muller, former organizer Irv Sheffey, our volunteer leaders, and our partners at the DC Environmental Network and Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Finally, a victory in West Virginia rounds out the list. Over the course of 2014 we've won multiple local victories, built volunteer-led teams in six communities, and secured settlements doubling electric companies' efficiency achievement. On Monday we delivered more than 500 petitions supporting increased energy savings to Governor Tomblin's office, making it a good week for West Virginia-based Beyond Coal organizer Bill Price, West Virginia Chapter activists Danny Chiotos and Jim Kotcon, and our whole West Virginia team.
We'll take that momentum into 2015!
In a December 23 dispatch, Midwest Beyond Coal deputy director Nachy Kanfer tacked on the following piece of good news:
I am thrilled to announce that the State of Kentucky has just approved its first utility-scale solar project, which will be 10 MW and located at the site of the E.W. Brown coal plant, which we are still working hard to close.
Not only is this Kentucky's first major solar project, it is the state's first major renewable project of any kind. Keep in mind the total installed capacity of wind and solar in Kentucky is currently less than 1 MW, and you get a sense of how big this is. Even in the age of low natural gas prices, Kentucky still gets a whopping 93 percent of its electricity from coal.
One sentence in an order issued this week by the Kentucky Public Service Commission sums it all up: "[I]t is appropriate ... to diversify their generation portfolio in light of a likely future carbon-constrained world.” This is the same Commission that in 2010 denied American Electric Power's application to enter into a power purchase agreement for 100 MW of wind on the basis that it was not needed and too expensive. My, how things have changed.
Hearty congratulations to the Cumberland Chapter, the entire Beyond Coal campaign team in Kentucky, and to Earthjustice and local counsel Joe Childers who represented us at the Public Service Commission. Happy holidays!