Comments to the Minnesota Division of Energy Resources Re: Value of Solar Stakeholder Process From: Institute for Local Self-Reliance John Farrell, Director of Democratic...
Five months ago, one of the country’s ten largest electric utilities told regulators in Minnesota that it needed three new natural gas power plants to...
There’s an increasingly shrill discussion among utilities (and from their own Edison Electric Institute) about the threat to their business from distributed energy, as their...
Two years ago, Boulder citizens voted to take over the electric utility but the incumbent monopoly is fighting back with a ballot initiative to cut...
For decades the energy future of Minneapolis was in the hands of others: meaningful change around cleaner energy was left to the state, affordability and...
A lot of folks came to a hearing at Minneapolis City Hall eight days ago to oppose a ballot measure authorizing the city to form...
I spent the past two weeks saying goodbye to my father, Jim Farrell, so instead of my usual discussion of good policy and practices for distributed...
This presentation by Director of Democratic Energy John Farrell shows the politics, process, and policy that led to Minnesota becoming the 17th state with a...
The word “parity” is to the solar advocate as the word “abracadabra” is to the magician. Through it, all things are possible. But there’s really...
When President Obama unveils his climate policy proposal in the coming days, he should focus on the one key element of successful climate and energy...
Over the weekend the campaign for a municipal utility option in Minneapolis, MN, got another boost: the endorsement of the city Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. The campaign’s...
When I wrote two weeks ago that Master Limited Partnerships are a Lousy Policy for Solar, Wind, and Taxpayers, I was aware that it wasn’t...
The municipal utility serving Denton, Texas, has already achieved 40% renewable energy. Their general manager presented to the Boulder, Colo., city council in 2013 as...
“A lot of the utilities don’t totally understand this new paradigm that’s coming.” David Blittersdorf of AllEarth Solar has been working to advance renewable energy...
Read reactions to this piece here If you follow the renewable energy industry and haven’t been sleeping, then you’ve probably heard about one of the...