Policy Outlook 2012: Don’t Expect Much From Washington
Political turmoil has enveloped 2011, and it is expected to set the scene for the coming year. The late-August Solyndra bankruptcy news cast a dark mark on the Department of Energy (DOE) loan program, which is fueling an already fiery Washington D.C. climate. The heated political atmosphere has already affected a biofuels industry facing a $6 billion cut in tax breaks for ethanol producers. It also is poised to impact debates on the set-to-expire 1603 cash grant and the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for the wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass industries.
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Policy Outlook 2012: Don’t Expect Much From Washington
Monopoly Energy or Energy Democracy?
Maybe it was the report from California that declared large solar lease investors are making an aggressive grab for Governor Brown’s groundbreaking 12,000 MW of distributed generation in CA. Or it could have been an insiders comment that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is (once again) under explosive pressure to auction off Colorado’s few untouched public lands for oil and gas leasing. Perhaps it was Secretary of Interior Salazar’s push to open 22 million acres of ecologically valuable public land for industrial solar development.
Continue here: Monopoly Energy or Energy Democracy?