Two NJ bills would help green-minded builders

Dozens of bills have been introduced in the New Jersey Legislature this session designed to encourage builders and developers to incorporate environmentally friendly construction standards, materials–and even alternative energy systems–in all new buildings.

On Thursday, Oct 23, the Senate Economic Growth Committee will consider two such bills.

S-1065 Permits electric public utilities to enter into agreements with building owners under which the utility would install or provide for the installation of solar systems to generate some or all of the building’s energy needs, including heating and cooling systems.

S-1066 Permits a developer to qualify for low-interest state loans when building a high performance green building. What’s a high-performance green building? The legislation defines it as “a building having at least 15,000 square feet in total floor area that is designed and constructed in a manner that achieves at least a silver rating according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System as adopted by the United States Green Building Council.

[Editor’s note: Click here to learn more about LEED rating systems]

The sponsor of both bills is Senator Bob Smith, D-Middlesex County, who is chairman of the Senate Environment Committee.

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Congress also bails out wind and solar industries


Tucked inside the $700 billion federal bailout bill for the nation’s financial sector is a lifesaver for the renewable energy industry.

For more than a year, the nation’s solar and wind lobbies have been fretting that Congress might not extend renewable energy credits before they expire on Dec. 31.

Locally, solar installers have testified before environmental committees in the New Jersey legislature that the industry would collapse without the credit extensions.

Congressional supporters of alternative energy spotted their opportunity when financial markets signaled that a meltdown was approaching and President Bush urged quick action on the bailout bill.

They managed to slip the renewable energy extension provisions, worth an estimated $17 billion, into the bailout bill and Bush, responding to the economic emergency, had no choice but to sign it.

The new law contains:- An 8-year extension of the residential and business Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar, small-wind and geothermal systems

– The elimination of the US $2,000 cap on the residential ITC

– The elimination of the prohibition on utilities from obtaining the ITC – Authorization of US $800 million for clean energy bonds for renewable energy generating facilities

– A 1-year extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind projects

– A 2-year extension of the PTC for geothermal facilities – A 2 year ITC for marine energy technologies (tidal, wave, current, ocean thermal)

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Is Honda’s new Prius-fighter the one for me?

Much to my surprise, at 110,000 miles, my 1997 Dodge Intrepid is still humming along. But winter is approaching. I need four new tires, the front windshield has a crack on the lower right passenger side and the brakes occasionally send back funereal tones.
It could be time for a new–or at last newer car–and I need advice on which way to go.

As one who wishes to limit his own personal contribution to the oil companies’ excess profits, the idea of driving a hybrid is appealing. One that’s caught my attention is the Insight (pictured above), which Honda unveiled last week at the 2008 Paris International Auto Show.

The C-Questor blog posted an interesting piece today on the five-door hatchback which will go on sale here in the spring at prices that may be $2,000 less than the Prius’s MSRP.

These days, I spend much more time in front of the computer screen than behind the wheel. Last year, I probably didn’t drive more than 7,000 miles. So I wonder how much gas I’d actually be saving with a hybrid and whether that savings in gas would offset the added cost of a hybrid vehicle.

What do you think? Does a new hybrid, like the Insight, make sense? With my limited driving needs, would buying a used hybrid be a better move? Maybe I should be looking for a standard car that gets better than average gas mileage?

Or, with the GM Volt and other all-electric vehicles only a year or so away from production, should I turn my 18-mpg Intrepid over to a good mechanic, make the necessary repairs, buy new tires, and hope to coax another year or more out of it?

Let us know by clicking on the tiny “comments” link below. Tell us what vehicle you’re driving (or would like to be driving) and why.

And thanks for your help!

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Timing so bad it’s downright nuclear

Talk about bad timing!

While outraged taxpayers across the nation on Monday watched Congress tie itself up in knots over the Bush Administration’s proposed $700 billion banking industry bailout, a giant energy company in Pennsylvania was asking Uncle Sam for a multi-million-dollar loan guarantee so it can build another nuclear plant on the Susquehanna River.
Hard to believe–and basically unreported in the mainstream media–but true.
PPL Corporation on Monday submitted a loan guarantee application to the U.S. Department of Energy. The company also is preparing an application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a combined license to build and operate Bell Bend. That’s the name PPL has given the new nuclear plant it proposes to build on a site near the company’s existing two-unit Susquehanna nuclear power facility.
In a news release reporting on its application, PPL fails to mention the size of the guarantee it is seeking. But you know the number can’t be a small one, because the company adds:

“Without federal loan guarantees companies like PPL will not be able to secure financing for the substantial cost of building new, advanced-design nuclear energy plants that will help this country achieve challenging limits on carbon dioxide emissions, as well as energy independence.”

PPL notes that, in authorizing the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress appropriated $18.5 billion for the federal loan guarantee program “to support projects that avoid greenhouse gas emissions and employ new technologies” and that Congress “intended that all costs of the program be paid by the industry at no cost to taxpayers.”
The last six days of near chaos in Congress raises the question, however, of whether any such appropriation can now be counted upon, as the nation’s spending priorities shift under the crushing burden of the anticipated banking bailout, a continuing economic slowdown and the war in Iraq for which $600 billion has been appropriated through FY 2008–and which could total as much as $1 trillion by the time it ends, according to Congressional estimates.
As ill-timed as the loan guarantee application might be, PPL probably had no choice as the second part of the loan guarantee application faces a Dec. 19 deadline.

Duke Energy also filed on Sep. 29 for a federal loan guarantee for the William States Lee III Nuclear Station which it proposes to build in Cherokee County, S.C.

What do you think of this development? Click on the comment link below and let us know.

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NJ wind-energy bidder plays ‘jobs’ card


One of the companies competing for state approval to install wind turbines off the coast of New Jersey today claimed it alone was in a position to deliver ‘green jobs’ to the state as part of the package.

Fishermen’s Energy said in a press release that it is “committed to build its construction, manufacturing, and assembly port facilities in New Jersey, likely in the economically hard hit port facilities of the South Jersey Port Corporation, bringing needed new jobs to New Jersey’s waterfront – including homeporting Fishermen’s Energy planned 340 foot special purpose construction vessel.”

The company says the two leading rivals for the New Jersey project–Bluewater Wind and Winergy Power–have committed to locate their manufacturing support facilities and the ‘green jobs’ that these facilities will create outside of New Jersey.

“Bluewater Wind and Babcock & Brown (its parent company) have pledged to the Governor of Delaware to locate their ports, staging areas, and jobs in Delaware, making Delaware their hub for construction and jobs for the entire Mid-Atlantic, including New Jersey,” says Fishermen’s Energy, while “Winergy has committed to base its corporate manufacturing headquarters in Rhode Island.”

Later this week, Governor Jon Corzine is expected to announce New Jersey’s choice to receive a $19 million grant to develop a 350 megawatt, ocean-wind pilot project. If the project demonstrates that wind energy can succeed without significant environment damage, the state likely will ramp up its demand for ocean-wind power to as much as 3,000 megawatts.

For more, see yesterday’s: DE, RI pick ocean wind firms, NJ’s on deck

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DE, RI pick ocean wind firms, NJ’s on deck

The states of Delaware and Rhode Island have selected companies to develop offshore wind farms to help each state reduce its energy dependence on foreign oil. Later this week, New Jersey is expected to dip its toe into the offshore wind waters.

We reported in June (‘First State’ in offshore wind energy, too? ) on the 25-year power contract in Delaware that will enable New Jersey-based Bluewater Wind to sell 200 megawatts of wind-generated electricity to Delmarva Power from a wind 600MW wind farm it plans to construct 11.5 miles off the coast of Rehoboth Beach.

On Thursday, Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri announced the selection of another Jersey-based firm, Deepwater Wind, (formerly Winergy), a Bluewater Wind competitor, to develop a privately financed project that would provide 1.3 million megawatt hours of offshore wind power per year.

At left, Governor Carcieri signs a contract with Christopher Brown, CEO of Deepwater Wind, whose company will construct a wind energy project off the coast of Rhode Island.
(The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski)

Deepwater Wind’s major investors are FirstWind, an on-shore wind project developer, D.E. Shaw & Co., a capital investment firm with experience in the energy sector, and Ospraie Management, an asset management firm with a focus on alternative energy markets.

One of the apparent reasons why Deepwater beat out rival Bluewater (and five other bidders) for the Rhode Island contract was its pledge to invest $1.5 billion in a regional facility that would manufacture support structures for the company’s wind towers and turbines. The facility is expected to create up to 800 direct jobs, with annual wages of $60 million.

Later this week, Governor Jon Corzine is expected to announce New Jersey’s choice to receive a $19 million grant to develop a 350 megawatt, ocean-wind pilot project. If the project demonstrates that wind energy can succeed without significant environment damage, the state likely will ramp up its demand for ocean-wind power to as much as 3,000 megawatts.

Bluewater Wind is one of five contestants for the state grant. Deepwater Wind also is in the competition, teamed up with New Jersey’s largest energy company, PSEG, in a partnership called Garden State Offshore Energy.

Also seeking the grant are:

– Environmental Technologies of New York, and
– Occidental Development & Equities of Bayonne

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