The Dirty Politics That Killed the Shaheen-Portman Efficiency Bill

Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Tech News, Environment, Sustainability, Innovation, Renewable Energy, Technology, Alternative Energy, Energy, News, Cleantech, Wind Energy, Business, Climate Change, Solar Energy

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2014

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How could a bipartisan energy efficiency bill described as "innocuous" fail so many times in Congress? Once again, the Senate failed to pass the Shaheen-Portman bill, a piece of legislation that would have created new standards and financing mechanisms for commercial and industrial efficiency. But the failure was less about energy and more about mid-term politics. In this week's podcast, we'll look at the forces behind the death of the bill. Then, we'll look at the Department of Energy's plans to fund three new demonstration-scale offshore wind projects by 2017, and dissect recent comments about climate change from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. The Energy Gang is produced by Greentechmedia.com. The show features weekly discussion between energy futurist Jigar Shah, energy policy expert Katherine Hamilton and Greentech Media Editor Stephen Lacey. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	For the week of May 15th, 2014, this is, a senior editor with Green Tech Media in our nation's Fair Capital City, Washington, D.C.
0:25.2	The rest of the Energy Gang joins me.
0:27.2	Coming to us from her office in Northeast D.C. is Catherine Hamilton of 38 North Solutions. She has a long history in the utility industry, smart grid advocacy, policy consulting.
0:38.0	Now to cap off her distinguished career, she is our co-host on the Energy Gang podcast.
0:43.3	Catherine, what has been the highlight of your week so far?
0:46.8	I'll tell you, the biggest thing that struck fear in my heart
0:50.9	was the news about the Antarctic glaciers. That's absolutely terrifying.
0:54.9	Yes, that's right. Scientists are saying that a big shelf in Antarctica is collapsing.
1:01.1	When they when scientists use the word collapse collapse they don't mean that it has literally collapsed into the ocean
1:06.7	It just means that it is an irreversible decline people should know that there's a big difference there
1:11.9	But eventually over the next century or so,
1:15.7	they're talking about sea level rise of 10 to 12 feet
1:18.9	due to this collapse.
1:20.1	So it is really scary, absolutely. Coming to us from Minnesota this week.
1:25.0	It is the ever affable always quotable jigger Shah.
1:28.0	He's an energy futurist and author of creating climate wealth.
1:32.0	Jigger, what's got you in Minnesota?
1:34.0	Well, you know, they've got this great conference here every year on renewable energy,
1:40.0	so I'll be key noting that tomorrow, and then I've decided to go step in and see my friend Michael
1:45.0	noble here while I'm here because he just does great work.
1:48.4	That's right and we talked about Michael on a show about value of solar tariffs.
1:53.0	He and many others were instrumental in developing the process in Minnesota for valuing
	...

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