Juggling Dynamite

According to the latest issue of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) monthly Energy Infrastructure Update, renewable energy dominated new U.S. electrical generation put into service during 2016. See:  Renewables dominated new US power generation in 2016.

Governments and their sponsors from the fossil fuels sector can continue to waste energy and other resources fighting against this common sense evolution or they can figure out ways to adapt and evolve with it.  In a world of falling employment and wages, cheap, clean power could not come at a better time for the cash strapped masses in all countries.  See: 10 reasons to be optimistic for a low-carbon future. This low-cost financing for households to harness solar power in Africa, can be replicated in larger scale across developed countries as well.  This is what smart looks like:

Pay-as-you-go solar companies, made possible by mobile phones, are the rage in Africa. M-Kopa Solar has leveraged the mobile money phenomena to sell more than 425,000 household solar systems in East Africa. With a $30 deposit and daily 50-cent payments, all by cell phone, customers get a solar panel, a couple of lights, a cell phone charger and a solar powered radio. After the first year of payments, customers own the system outright. Similar off-grid solar companies are now sprouting up across Africa and they’ve attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in financing.

Danielle was a guest today with Jim Goddard on Talk Digital Network talking about recent developments in the world economy and markets.  You can listen to an audio clip of the segment here.

With President Donald Trump threatening to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement and choosing climate denier, Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, environmentalists are pressing action on a State and local level. This week the Maryland State House of Representatives overrode Republican Governor Larry Hogan’s veto of The Clean Energy Jobs Act. The Maryland Senate is expected to follow suit and take up the override tomorrow, which would put the law into effect. The 2016 bill would ensure that Maryland will get 25% of its electricity from renewables by 2020.  Here is a direct video link.

Mike Tidwell is the founder and the director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots non-profit, dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia and DC. Tidwell is also an author and a filmmaker whose books include: “The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas and The Death of America’s Costal Cities.”