Lanard leaving Bluewater for rival wind developer

One of the most recognizable faces among regional wind energy company executives, Jim Lanard, is leaving Bluewater Wind next week to join rival Deepwater Wind.

Today’s Wilmington News Journal reports that the move will be a promotion for Lanard “as he will serve as one of three managing partners who report only to the company’s board of directors.”

Like Bluewater Wind, Deepwater Wind is located in Hoboken, NJ.

Deepwater is participating with New Jersey’s largest energy company, PSEG, in developing a 350mw wind farm off the New Jersey coast. That joint venture, Garden State Offshore Energy, is one of three wind-energy developers selected by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to receive state grants to explore such offshore projects.

Lanard, who was Bluewater Wind’s head of strategic planning, functioned as the company’s media spokesperson during its protracted but ultimately successful effort to gain Delaware’s approval for a wind farm off the coast of Rehoboth Beach.

During the process, Lanard helped develop enough grassroots political support for the project among environmental groups, municipal leaders and the media to eventually convince an extremely reluctant Delmarva Power to enter into an agreement to purchase energy from the at-sea facility.

Lanard developed his political skills in the late 1980s as the lobbyist for PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), then a Ralph Nader-influenced and Rutgers University-based environmental activist organization. Among his most notable accomplishments was enactment of the state’ s Community Right to Know Act, legislation which was bitterly opposed by the business community.

Lanard went on to work for a New Jersey congressman, served as director of government relations and environmental programs for the Disney’s America project, and was executive director of the
New Jersey Environmental Lobby and the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia. He has extensive political relationships in New Jersey and Washington and has close ties to former Governor Jim Florio.

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MORE ON WIND ENERGY:
Deepwater poaches exec from rival firm –Providence Business News
NJ offshore wind energy’s new gust of intrigue
Deepwater to tackle N.J. wind project – Providence Business News
NorthJersey.com: Partnership OK’d for offshore wind farm
BPU Selects Developer of NJ Offshore Wind Project
Huge Offshore Wind Farm Wins Approval – City Room – Metro – New York Times Blog
Wind-Power Politics – NYTimes.com

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Old bike collecting dust? Recycle it!

A great organization called Pedals for Progress tell us that:

“Every year, affluent Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning many more unused in basements, sheds, and garages. Most of these end up in our already overburdened landfills. Meanwhile, poor people overseas need cheap, non-polluting transportation to get to jobs, markets, customers, and schools. Pedals for Progress has received, processed and donated over 115,000 bicycles, 1,000 used sewing machines and $10.8 million in new spare parts to partner charities in 32 developing world countries”

The organization will take your artifact off your hands and ship it overseas. It costs them about $35 per bike to do so they insist on at least $10 from each donor. Don’t be a cheapskate. Give them more.

Here’s a Spring/Summer schedule of community collection days in various towns in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York….and a film clip about the organization.

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RGGI focus of NJ Regional Energy Summit

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine will be the keynote speaker when government and energy industry leaders gather at Rutgers University on April 15 for the New Jersey Regional Energy Summit.

They’ll be focusing on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the use of energy-efficiency measures to help meet RGGI’s emissions targets.

This (by-invitation-only) event is the second in a series of four Regional Energy Summits leading to the Council’s National Energy Summit in Washington on September 23-24, 2009.

Additional participants will include Ralph Izzo, President and CEO of PSEG; Richard L. McCormick, President of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Dominic Pileggi, President and CEO of Thomas & Betts Corporation; Shirley Ann Jackson, Vice Chair of the Council on Competitiveness and President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and Deborah L. Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness.
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Will we follow Germany on renewable energy?

“Germany’s Reichstag in Berlin is set to become the first parliamentary building in the world to be powered 100 percent by renewable energy. Soon the entire country will follow suit. Germany is accelerating its efforts to become the world’s first industrial power to use 100 percent renewable energy — and given current momentum, it could reach that green goal by 2050.”

That’s the lead to an interesting piece from the April 3 issue of Renewable Energy World (Germany: The World’s First Major Renewable Energy Economy) in which correspondent Jane Burgermeister reports that:

“In 2008, the percentage of renewables in Germany’s primary energy consumption was 7.3, but that figure is predicted to increase to 33 percent by 2020 as the country thunders on ahead of other European countries in renewable energy development.”

President Obama is laboring to push America down a similar road. Will he succeed?

It depends, or course, on numerous factors, not the least of which is whether he can get buy-in from the electorate, the Congress, and powerful special interests.

Some of the nation’s largest electric utility companies in recent months (including New Jersey’s PSEG) have been calling for a national carbon tax.

The levy would not only serve to discourage fossil fuel use and reduce greenhouse emissions, but also could underwrite some of the enormous costs of developing a renewable energy infrastructure (wind, solar, wave, hydro and geothermal power facilities) and the smart grid to deliver that energy far and wide.

A major national player that’s apparently decided no to participate (at least not for the foreseeable future) is Big Oil.

In a terrific story today, (Oil giants loath to follow Obama’s green lead), the New York Times reports that:

” Even as Washington goes into a frenzy over energy, many of the oil companies are staying on the sidelines, balking at investing in new technologies favored by the president, or even straying from commitments they had already made.”

Is Germany on the right track? Are the oil companies wrong not to commit their shareholders’ resources?

Let us know what you think in the comment block below. If you don’t see one, click on the tiny “comments” line and it will appear.

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Atlantic City DOE meeting on off-shore energy

Among dozens of other important environmental and political news stories, today’s edition of EnviroPolitics, will carry extensive coverage of yesterday’s public hearing in Atlantic City on the nation’s future offshore energy options.

The meeting, conducted by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, drew a large crowd, including governors, congressmen, oil industry representatives and alternative-energy proponents.

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Stimulus plan energy funding for NJ, NY, PA, DE

The author of the guest article below is Lawrence Cohen, a director at Gibbons P.C., a 220-lawyer business and litigation firm with offices in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
Mr. Cohen’s varied national practice includes advising companies in the alternative energy/sustainable development sector that focus on R&D, manufacturing, installation, or investment.
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Recovery Act Energy Funding – Information Sources and Selected State Developments

Announcements regarding the allocation of federal money and loans for “clean technology” under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the “Recovery Act”) have been released at a feverish pace since the Recovery Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. In addition, state governments are issuing further pronouncements and guidance on potential alternative energy/sustainable development programs, whether derived from the Recovery Act or stemming from preexisting state budgetary allocations.

The range of potential recipients of such government energy-program assistance who need to explore where and how to secure funding, is very broad. These parties include not only “end users” (producers and installers of alternative energy technology, contractors and designers of residential and commercial building energy efficiency technology and weatherization upgrades, recycling companies, etc.), but researchers in basic alternative energy science.[1]

Thanks to the Internet, the dissemination of a large volume of government press releases, policy guidelines, and other data sources has been rapid and widespread. However, tracking these developments can also be overwhelming to parties that seek to learn how to benefit from our national effort to encourage business expansion and job creation through clean technology.

The effort involved in navigating the on-line information relating to government grants, applications and funding programs can be daunting and require a significant commitment or time and expertise.

This article points out certain general sources of information and updates some of the most recent state programs administering the Recovery Act funds in the energy sector. Because Gibbons P.C.’s offices are located in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, we have focused on these four, contiguous states.

Click here to read entire article
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