EGEB: US House of Reps – ‘Climate Change National Security Threat’, more

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

House Approves Defense Policy Bill Declaring Climate Change A National Security Threat – The Republican-led House decisively approved a defense policy bill on Friday that declares climate change a national security threat, demands rigorous oversight of the Pentagon’s cyber operations and rejects the Trump administration’s bid to close military bases. Like all things political, this language’s path is complex and the bill it is in might not pass. I’d guess this language was allowed to stay in order to make Democrats want to increase the size of the military budget by $30 billion (or more). Bill has a lot of challenges – including having to remove laws put in place by Republicans to limit the Obama government’s ability to increase the budget. Such irony – having to change laws you made just seven years to limit government size, so you can increase government size…I wonder if it had to do with who was POTUS at the time.

South Miami Set to Become First City in Florida to Require Solar Panels on New Homes – On Wednesday, the City Commission approved the ordinance on a second reading, in a 4-1 vote. The new law would require owners of new homes — including single-family homes, townhouses and multi-story residential buildings — to install solar panels. It also applies to owners who expand their homes by 75% or greater. On the one hand, we’re telling people what to do with their own homes – its a sound argument to not be forced to spend money. On the other hand, a home that is using CO2 in an electricity intense environment like South Florida is telling the rest of the world to deal with its pollution via forcing spend money to defend themselves against future temperature increases. You know where I stand.

Our View: Time for lawmakers to override solar veto – Recently, the Governor of Maine – who let this gem dribble out of his mouth, ‘‘the sooner print press goes away, the better society will be’ – vetoed a bipartisan solar power bill. The bill was approved by more than 2/3 of the representatives – enough to override the Governor’s veto. Now, locals are starting to push the override. A similar bill in 2016 also had a veto proof majority in its initial passage – but it ended up losing as multiple politicians flipped their vote on the last day of the voting season. Currently, Maine has some of the highest electricity rates in the country – with almost zero solar power. Of course, what do you think this animal blames for increasing prices?

NOAA erases ‘human activity’ from news release on soaring greenhouse gases – “It’s a complicated topic that can be difficult to communicate,” the Trump administration claims. Actually, its complicated when you want to figure out how to lie about it while manipulating tens of millions of people and funnelling hundreds of billions toward corporate interests. At what point is someone guilty of manslaughter? The tobacco companies were convicted of RICO lawsuits – coodinating efforts among themselves to lie to the public about the health effects of smoking. We know that Exxon and other knew about the reality of global warming in the late 1970s – yet they continued spreading doubt via funding and directing think tanks to like on the topic. Now, those people are directly altering the words of our scientists. Currently, there is a ban in the State of Florida for government departments to use the term ‘climate change.’ And of course, we’ve got a Department of Energy report that we expect to be altered by politicians coming very soon. Garbage politicians.

EIA adds small-scale solar photovoltaic forecasts to its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook – The main body of the US government watching energy production has made this decision because the volume of electricity produced is now significant enough to warrant the investment of their time. The 25,400GWh of small scale solar power is almost the same as three 1GW nuclear reactors (the average size) – and just under two nuclear facilities (multiple reactors at each facility). Even with the electric utilities attacking – this number is still growing hard – the EIA is predicting 50% growth from end of April 2017 through end of 2018 (equivalent to adding more than 1.5 nuclear reactors worth of electricity in about 1.5 years.

Next Energy gets $2.5 million grant to commercialize solar panel windows (as part of SunShot program) – The project aims to develop and commercialize Next’s prototypes and begin pilot manufacturing to help meet a target Levelized Cost of Energy of 3 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2030. Onyx Solar is already doing it, and at some point – someone – is going to make a killer solar panel window that drives uptake in the market. I’d guess that main reason it isn’t moving heavily is because the efficiency levels aren’t high enough to motivate a move. Replacing old windows is going to take a strong financial motivation – even at a low price of 3¢/kWh it won’t make movement unless the volume per meter produced is heavy. Though, at that price in new construction, it probably will become the norm real soon.

Self-fueling boat sets off from Paris on 6-year world trip – The futuristic-looking 30.5-meter (100-foot) boat will rely on sun or wind during the day and tap into its hydrogen reservoirs at night. It produces its own hydrogen through electrolysis of sea water. Electrification of many things need occur. Shipping is a BIG target – ~5% of global CO2 emissions.

What this politician has discovered will SHOCK and OUTRAGE you!

You know you're in trouble when your leaders say stuff like this.#Science #Renewables pic.twitter.com/VOL0GipsDa

— Don't Go There #ScienceBased (@bigal953) July 16, 2017

And the inverse from a speech given by the Governor of California late last week. When old men plant trees, whose shade they’ll never enjoy – the world gets better.

Brown pointing to the crowd: "I’m not here for some cockamamie legacy that people are talking about. I’m going to be dead. This is for you."

— Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) July 13, 2017

Header image of a solar pylon built by Porsche as part of its electric charger marketing.

Considering residential solar? Understand Solar will connect you with local contractors. Tweet me to pick apart quote.

For more electric vehicle, autonomous transport and clean technology news, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Newsletter, RSS or Facebook to get our latest articles.