Electric Mercedes opens German assault on Tesla

Mercedez electric car concept




Esha Vaish, Laurence Frost report for Reuters:

STOCKHOLM/PARIS (Reuters) – Mercedes-Benz is set to unveil its much-anticipated electric SUV on Tuesday, marking the start of a German onslaught against Tesla’s (TSLA.O) dominance of the fast-growing market for premium battery cars.

The EQC, the first fully electric Mercedes car is shown at a presentation in Stockholm, Sweden September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Esha Vaish

Daimler-owned (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes, BMW (BMWG.DE) and Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) Audi and Porsche divisions are all gunning for the $52 billion Californian upstart, with early publicity efforts emulating its tech-industry halo.

The market for upscale electric cars is Tesla’s to lose, with sales of its entry-level Model 3 sedan expected to reach about 50,000 cars this year and almost double that in 2019.

The Mercedes EQC – whose launch program in Stockholm features yoga in a direct appeal to the Millennials who have flocked to Tesla – is the first production model under the carmaker’s electric EQ sub-brand. It will be closely followed by similarly hyped debuts for BMW and Audi.

“While Tesla currently has a strong hold on the luxury electric market, I don’t think this will be the case after the arrival of the German premium offerings,” said Wajih Hossenally, an automotive powertrain analyst with IHS Markit.

“Tesla has virtually zero competition – but this will change from 2019 onwards.”

Rival forecaster LMC Automotive agrees, predicting a steady decline in Tesla’s share of an exploding electric-car market over the next decade, from today’s 12.3 percent to 2.8 percent, even as its absolute sales continue to rise.

The Germans’ combined market share will surpass Tesla’s to reach 11.8 percent in 2020 before increasing further to about 19 percent three years later, according to its projections.

The new Mercedes, due to reach its first customers next year, will be priced close to the fuel-burning GLC to compete in the same bracket as Tesla’s $49,000 Model 3, helped by its hotter-selling SUV form.


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In Pa., the future of renewable energy is lawmakers’ call

DEEP DIVE

Two roads diverging: Pennsylvania lawmakers rethink their renewables mandate

Policymakers are making decisions on how to change the state’s alternative energy portfolio standards by 2021, causing a tension between utilities and distributed solar activists.
Herman K. Trabish reports for Utility Dive 
Pennsylvania leaders have big choices to make about the state’s energy and solar future that will impact its power sector for the next decade.

Policymakers must choose how to change the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS), which now requires 18% alternative energy by 2021. And, if they replace the AEPS’ 0.5% carve-out, they must choose whether to include 90% utility-scale solar or 35% distributed solar.
At the end of 2017, Pennsylvania was at 0.2% solar. A draft plan for 10% solar by 2030 was released in July. Its choice of a largely utility-scale solar carve out, or one that includes over one-third distributed solar, has already started a classic solar debate between utilities and distributed solar advocates.
“Pennsylvania is working on the energy sector’s next generation and solar should be key,” said Patrick McDonnell, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which hosted the stakeholder-led process that produced the plan. “With its low installed price continuing to drop, solar must be a bigger part of our energy mix to keep us competitive with surrounding states.”
The new solar plan shows Pennsylvania “wants the jobs and environmental and energy benefits that come with solar,” he added. “The state’s utilities need to understand we are moving from large centralized plants to a more distributed energy grid and that means changes, but those changes can help utilities deliver better power quality and resilience for their customers.”

A state ready for change

“Pennsylvania is lagging behind its neighboring states,” Vote Solar Mid-Atlantic Director Pari Kasotia told Utility Dive. “This plan may push the legislature into action on an increased renewables mandate that includes a solar future.” The numbers support her point.
Pennsylvania installed 372.63 MW of solar at the end of 2017, to meet 0.2% of its electricity needs, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). That ranked it 22nd in the U.S., created 3,848 solar businesses and produced a total $1.5 billion investment in solar.
This puts it well behind its border-states, Maryland and New Jersey. Maryland, Pennsylvania’s Mid-Atlantic neighbor to the south, has half the population, but an installed solar capacity of 932.7 MW which meets 2.92% of its electricity need, according to SEIA. It ranks 13th nationally, has 5,324 solar businesses, and a $2.6 billion total in-state solar investment.   
Across the Delaware River, New Jersey has three-fourths the population, but ranks 5th nationally with an installed solar capacity of 2,446.79 MW, SEIA reported. It met 3.87% of its electricity need with solar in 2017, had 7,106 solar businesses and $7.8 billion in total solar investment.

A comparison of solar’s job creation as well as RPS goals in neighboring states. 

 

Credit: From the DEP’s draft solar plan

“Nearby states have embraced solar development to a greater degree,” the first paragraph of Pennsylvania’s Solar Future Plan acknowledges. But the experience gained by policymakers, utilities, and solar developers in those states “can now be used [in Pennsylvania].”


Despite the state’s apparent lack of progress compared to its neighbors, the state moved from 26th to 22nd in SEIA’s 2017 national rankings, evidence that the state “is moving forward,” the plan reports. “There is significant potential for solar to continue this growth and transform the electricity generation sector.”

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s administration took a significant step forward with October 2017’s Act 40, McDonnell said. The Act will help boost solar growth by protecting Pennsylvania’s solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) price.

Several factors, including other states selling their SRECs to Pennsylvania utilities, caused an oversupply and drove REC solar prices sharply down, RER Energy Group VP for Strategy Chris Flynn told Utility Dive.

The plan describes a set of “Cross-Cutting Strategies” that go beyond the Act. They include a more demanding AEPS, carbon pricing, innovative rates and financing programs. Widely endorsed by distributed solar advocates and rejected by utilities, these strategies could bring down solar costs and drive Pennsylvania’s solar market.

“The next step is to engage with the legislature and others,” McDonnell said. “Reconsidering and expanding solar is the starting point because the AEPS’s 18% mandate will be met by 2021. This plan asks ‘what comes next?'”

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Hoboken water woes reach boiling point as mayor threatens water company, Suez, with lawsuit

Corey W. McDonald reports for the Jersey Journal:

HOBOKEN — The nearly 25-year relationship between the city and Suez, the company operating the city’s water system, took an ugly turn Tuesday when Mayor Ravi Bhalla said he intends to sue the company and seek a new operator following a rash of water main breaks.
Bhalla, during a 10 a.m. press conference outside City Hall, declared a city-wide emergency after a string of water main breaks that the city has “never before seen.”
“In our view, there can only be one explanation: Suez has mismanaged our system,” Bhalla said.
Suez has been contracted with the city since 1994. City officials said Tuesday there have been 14 water main breaks over a 64-day period, an “anomaly” in the summer months.
“Needless to say, decisive action is appropriate and necessary to address the spike in water main breaks,” he said, adding that the water remains safe to drink.
Bhalla said the city intends to file a lawsuit against Suez “if, as we suspect, our professionals confirm that the cause of the water main breaks is the result of Suez’s mismanagement of our water main system.” 
Meeting between Hoboken mayor, water company reps ends abruptly, official says
Meeting between Hoboken mayor, water company reps ends abruptly, official says
An emergency meeting between the mayor and Suez to discuss the city’s recent water main breaks didn’t go as well as planned.

He will seek authorization from the City Council during the body’s regular meeting on Sept. 5 to retain legal counsel for the litigation. Bhalla said his administration will also seek council approval to rebid the city’s water management.
But during its own press conference at 11 a.m., the water company defended itself against accusations of mismanagement and refuted the city’s claims.
Rich Henning, a senior vice president of Suez, said that for the past 17 years, the city has averaged 12 water main breaks during the months of July and August — on par with what the city cast as an anomaly.
Annually, the city has averaged 111 water main breaks, about one break every three days, Henning added.
“One-hundred-year-old pipes have outlasted their usefulness and, truthfully, it is time for the city to finance and get ready to (install) infrastructure that meets the greatness of this city,” Henning said.
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Algae bloom in Lake Superior raises tourism concerns

Scientists collecting samples of the algae. Lake Superior is one of several major bodies of water where algae blooms have drawn scientific scrutiny.CreditCreditBrenda Moraska Lafrancois
Christine Hauser reports for the New York Times: In 19 years of piloting his boat around Lake Superior, Jody Estain had never observed the water change as it has this summer. The lake has been unusually balmy and cloudy, with thick mats of algae blanketing the shoreline.

“I have never seen it that warm,” said Mr. Estain, a former Coast Guard member who guides fishing, cave and kayak tours year-round. “Everybody was talking about it.”

But it was not just recreational observers along the shores of the lake who noticed the changes with concern. Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes with more than 2,700 miles of shoreline, is the latest body of water to come under increased scrutiny by scientists after the appearance this summer of the largest mass of green, oozing algae ever detected on the lake.

From the Gulf Coast to the northernmost shores of the United States, scientists and government officials are working to decipher algae blooms to help them interpret the causes of the blooms, changes to their climates, and the effects the blooms have on public health and regional environments.


Scientists generally agree that algae blooms are getting worse and more widespread, and are exacerbated by the warmer water, heat waves and extreme weather associated with climate change. They are also intensified by human activity, such as from farm and phosphorus runoff, leakage from sewer systems, and other pollution.
The problems that algae blooms pose to fresh and marine waters have been propelled to the forefront in recent years by high-profile events like the shutdown of the water supply in Toledo, Ohio, in 2014 after toxic algae formed over the city’s water-intake pipe in Lake Erie, as well as the production of a toxin by a species of algae off the West Coast in 2015.
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More recently, in the waters off southwestern Florida, a toxic algal bloom known as a red tide persisted this year for more than nine months, the longest time period since 2006. The overgrowth killed wildlife and made some beaches noxious.
Other areas, including the Finger Lakes in New York and Utah Lake south of Salt Lake City, have also experienced an unusually high number of blooms in recent years.
This week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s laboratory for environmental research on the Great Lakes warned that some parts of Lake Erie were not fit for recreational activities because of an algal bloom.

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NYDEC announces record-breaking fishing in Lake Ontario

Survey Reveals Catch Rates of Chinook Salmon Double
the Five-Year Average during Spring and Early Summer 2018


New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos today announced that fishing for trout and salmon in Lake Ontario has set records this year, with veteran anglers reporting some of the best fishing in decades.

“The New York waters of Lake Ontario provide a world-famous recreational fishery for trout and salmon, and fishing has been exceptional this summer,” Commissioner Seggos said. “Preliminary results from the Lake Ontario Fishing Boat Survey indicate that fishing for Chinook salmon has been outstanding along the entire New York shoreline.”

Fishing success is measured by “catch rate,” which is the number of fish caught per boat trip. The catch rate for Chinook salmon during April to June 2018 set a record that was 227 percent above the previous five-year average. The catch rate for all trout and salmon species combined also surpassed the previous record high, more than 37 percent above the previous five-year average.

Fishing for brown trout and Coho salmon has also been excellent in 2018, with catch rates 38 and 21 percent higher than their respective, previous five-year averages. Atlantic salmon represent a relatively small portion of the Lake Ontario fishery but catch rates for Atlantic salmon were 73 percent above the previous five-year average.

Like this? Click to receive free updatesChuck Parker, President of the New York State Conservation Council (NYSCC), said, “This is the second year in a row that the take of Chinook has been above average at Oswego, as reported by Council members. There are so many variables that can and do affect the quality of the fishing opportunities we have. We at the NYSCC recognize that the science-based management practices of the DEC’s Bureau of Fisheries are an integral force in sustaining the New York’s world-class Lake Ontario fishery.”

Captain Vince Pierleoni, of Olcott, said, “It’s the best Chinook fishing I’ve seen since 1989.”
Captain Bob Songin, of Pt. Breeze, said, “The fishing out of Wilson Harbor to the Niagara River has been spectacular, with many Chinook and Coho salmon hitting as well as the occasional lake trout mixed in.”


Fishing for Chinook salmon and brown trout has also been great in Eastern Lake Ontario with large numbers of fish caught all along the shoreline. Oswego produced a 28.1-pound Chinook salmon that won the grand prize in the Spring Lake Ontario Counties (LOC) Trout and Salmon Derby.


Lake Ontario is consistently ranked among the top fishing destinations in the country by national publications. Lake Ontario and its embayments and tributaries comprise more than 2.7 million acres and support thriving populations of fish, including a variety of trout, salmon, bass, walleye, yellow perch, and panfish.


A recent statewide angler survey estimated that more than 2.6 million angler days were spent on Lake Ontario and major tributaries. The estimated value of these fisheries exceeded $112 million annually to local economies.


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Trump power plan can’t save coal from market forces



















Utilities with aging power plants are asking: Do I upgrade and retrofit or do I retire and replace? “When the price of natural gas is as low as it’s been, and for the foreseeable future looks to be very low, that decision becomes very easy,” said analyst Kenneth Medlock III. Credit: Volker Hartmann/Getty Images

The U.S. is on course for more coal plant closings as utilities shift to cheaper renewables and natural gas. Analysts say the administration can do little about it.

Dan Gearino reports for Inside Climate News:

The Trump administration’s proposal for rolling back federal power plant regulations could affect the short-term fate of some plants, but utility companies appear likely to maintain their long-term course in a market where coal power can no longer compete with natural gas and renewables.
And even if the Trump proposal—which only addresses existing power plants—is made final after a period of public comments, it will still face legal challenges from states and environmental groups. It is unlikely to go into force until well after 2020.
Energy analysts say the administration and coal interests can do little to change the industry’s trajectory.
The market points inexorably toward continued closing of coal plants in favor of renewables and natural gas. Gyrations in U.S. energy policy are making companies less likely to make investment decisions that assume the latest policy will endure. And some big states, especially California and the Northeastern states, are moving in the opposite direction from Trump with cap and trade carbon regulations on all power plants or laws demanding a steady shift to renewables.
And even if the Trump proposal—which only addresses existing power plants—is made final after a period of public comments, it will still face legal challenges from states and environmental groups. It is unlikely to go into force until well after 2020.

Here’s What Utilities Are Saying

Where utilities come down on the Trump administration’s “Affordable Clean Energy plan,” proposed last week as a replacement for the Clean Power Plan, depends largely on how much they rely on coal.
On one side are those like Pacific Gas & Electric, which has no coal-fired power plants. It was one of 10 utility companies that had argued for retaining the Clean Power Plan in a case before U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that’s currently on hold.
“We are disappointed by the EPA’s proposal, and will continue to advocate for decarbonizing the U.S. economy through public policy that recognizes the changing dynamics of the electric power sector, including new sources of low-carbon energy,” PG&E spokesman James Noonan said in an email. He said the Clean Power Plan “achieved a thoughtful, balanced approach that gave companies and states considerable flexibility on how best to pursue that goal.”
Dean Seavers, president of National Grid U.S., which also supported the Clean Power Plan in court, said in a statement: “National Grid believes significant and urgent action is needed to combat climate change and has long supported reasonable decarbonization policies and strategies—including the Clean Power Plan and the Paris climate accord.”
“As one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, the impacts of climate change are central to our business and infrastructure planning,” Seavers said. “We view this matter as one of the greatest challenges of our time.”
Among companies that wanted to see the Obama-era plan repealed or revised, the statements have been much more subdued in tone.

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