Posted June 4, 2013 by Ralph Cavanagh
For the fourth consecutive year, California leads the nation in clean technology development according to a survey released today that primarily credits the state’s “clean electricity deployment, energy efficiency, policy innovation and investment attraction.” The U.S. Clean Tech Leadership Index...continued→
Posted May 13, 2013 by Ralph Cavanagh in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Way back in 1996, I was honored to receive the Heinz Award and now I’m joining other winners of that prize and the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize as signatories to a letter calling on the Obama administration to reject the...continued→
Posted May 6, 2013 by Ralph Cavanagh in Solving Global Warming
The nation’s two largest states compete at many levels, as my friend former Texas Secretary of State and “Texas triumphalist” Hope Andrade likes to remind me, although she’s convinced that her state beats California in every dimension. I concede that...continued→
Posted February 27, 2013 by Ralph Cavanagh in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Today the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Energy Board released a wide-ranging report entitled "America's Energy Resurgence: Sustaining Success, Confronting Challenges." The Energy Board’s members span a broad ideological spectrum, and the report aims to identify opportunities for bipartisan consensus at both...continued→
Posted February 4, 2013 by Ralph Cavanagh
It seems more than ironic that the head of Peabody Energy, one of America’s largest coal suppliers, would be suggesting that last night’s Super Bowl blackout is an argument for more coal-fired electricity. After all, in 2005 Hurricane Katrina turned...continued→
Posted January 31, 2013 by Ralph Cavanagh in Solving Global Warming
Half of the U.S. states now recognize that it’s a good thing for consumers to be rewarded with lower utility bills for saving energy but it shouldn’t lead to a lower credit rating for their hometown utility if electricity or...continued→
Posted November 5, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Solving Global Warming
Most Americans (not to mention their political candidates) forget how much utilities matter as stewards of our most essential infrastructure -- until the power goes out for an extended period. For millions in the Northeast Hurricane Sandy, which caused the...continued→
Posted October 30, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Solving Global Warming
Billions of dollars will be invested in upgrading America’s electrical grid in the coming years but making it smarter in California and elsewhere won’t lead to lower bills, healthier air or fewer greenhouse gas emissions without well-designed utility programs. In...continued→
Posted October 23, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh
Throughout a long presidential election season in which both sides constantly invoke “all of the above” as the energy policy of choice, neither campaign has paid much -- if any -- attention to our fastest, cheapest and cleanest source of...continued→
Posted October 10, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
I begin with a sentence that would have been unimaginable when I began my work at NRDC more than three decades ago: today I write in praise of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. This month the nation’s...continued→
Posted August 21, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Solving Global Warming
This week, I asked the California Public Utilities Commission to banish the word “ratepayer” from its institutional vocabulary and instead use a better term to describe the people who pay utility bills, which is pretty much all of us. I...continued→
Posted August 20, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Solving Global Warming
When you put some of the world’s leading experts on energy technologies into the same conference room, you’re likely to hear some unexpected and promising revelations about how we can power our future. This month’s Electric Power Research Institute did...continued→
Posted July 12, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Solving Global Warming
It’s not often that an environmental advocate gets to share good news about energy with electricity industry executives. But I recently had the opportunity to do so during the annual summer course on energy issues that I teach at the...continued→
Posted June 18, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
If utilities worldwide could implement aggressive energy efficiency programs without suffering automatic financial penalties, there would be far less need for fossil fuels and the $1 trillion in subsidies that encourage the continued use of these dirty resources. Most people...continued→
Posted May 25, 2012 by Ralph Cavanagh in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
Southern California Edison Company recycled its one millionth refrigerator yesterday, a significant milestone that also exemplifies a spectacular national energy-savings success story. The customer who donated the hideous avocado-colored electricity-guzzler from the 1970s received the customary $35 rebate from the...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
