Local Businesses: Nevada, stop wasting energy

Newly Formed Business Coalition Demands Nevada Stop Wasting Energy

LAS VEGAS – On March 6th, dozens of Las Vegans joined with local businesses owners at the Las Vegas Cyclery to demand more attention be put towards energy efficiency in Nevada. The group released a coalition letter signed by 30 local businesses calling on the Nevada State Legislature’s Interim Committee on Energy to study energy efficiency performance in the state. At the press conference, the energy efficiency advocates cited a report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy where Nevada’s energy efficiency performance fell from being ranked 15th in the country to 33rd between the years 2008 and 2013.

“Our message today is clear. Nevada can and must be a leader in energy efficiency,” said Tom Kroplinski, owner of the Art Box in Downtown Las Vegas. “We’ve been taking steps in the right direction to protect our health and our environment by moving beyond coal. Las Vegans want to ensure that we can continue to take steps in the right direction towards a fully clean energy economy. Improving our energy efficiency performance is the first step.”

The press conference was held at the Las Vegas Cyclery, a Green Business owned by Las Vegas local Jared Fisher. Fisher spoke about the benefits of owning an energy efficient business. “Trying to move to clean energy without energy efficiency is like trying to lose weight while still eating Big Macs. Cutting back on our energy consumption in a necessary step in moving beyond fossil fuels.” Jared and Heather Fisher were lucky enough to invest in efficiency when building up their business. Not all business owners in Las Vegas have the means to make those investments on their own.

“The City of Las Vegas’s backslide on energy efficiency standards are causing confusion in the building industry as they don’t meet state standards,” said Jenifer Turchin, Project Manager at Sellen Sustainability. “Nevada has enormous potential to be a leader in energy efficiency but when standards are jurisdictionally changed without input from industry it sets the whole industry sliding backwards.” Turchin said that the first step in energy efficiency standards is conservation which is the cheapest and easiest option to keep energy rates low.

Advocates emphasized that every home, office, public building, and factory can cut energy waste by installing advanced lighting, heating and cooling systems, or appliances, but that these costs should not fall solely on the home or business owner. Energy saved helps every utility customer, because lower use means the utility doesn’t have to invest in large new energy supply projects that drive up rates.

Last June, legislators passed SB 123, which included a timeline to retire the Reid Gardner Coal Plant in Moapa, Nevada by 2017. The bill also mandated NV Energy to build 350 MW of new renewable energy, and allows up to 550 MW of “flexible power,” which could be anything from fossil fuels like natural gas to clean energy options like geothermal or energy efficiency.

“SB 123 was a major victory for our environment and our economy in Nevada,” said Tom Kroplinski. “We cannot look back to more fossil fuels like natural gas. We’re urging our legislative leadership to study how we can do better, and prioritize putting Nevada’s energy efficiency performance back on top.”

New readings in climate change

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Paleoclimate of the American West, and what we know right now

I just finished reading two very good new readings in climate change. One tells you what you might want to know about the past, present and future – and it turns out, very wild – climate of the American West. The other is the perfect place to go for a general overview of what we know right now about anthropogenic climate change – something you might want to have handy when you go to Thanksgiving dinner with that climate-skeptic uncle or to a town meeting with your climate-change-denying congressman.

First, the past: The West Without Water

This ambitious book, written for a general audience, sets out to tell us the state of what we know about the past, present, and future climate of the American West, and the influence of that climate on the region’s environment and society.

It’s a big job, but authors B. Lynn Ingram, a professor of Earth and Planetary Science at U.C. Berkeley and Frances Malamud-Roam, Environmental Planner and Biologist with the California Department of Transportation manage it pretty well. The first section, “Floods and Droughts in Living Memory” reads almost like a thriller: did you know that in 1861-62 the city of Sacramento was under six feet of water for six months?

The meat of the book is the central section: “A Climate History of the American West,” in which we learn not only what paloeclimatologists have pieced together about the climate history of our region, we learn about the natural “archives” that have allowed them to do it, from ocean sediments in the Santa Barbara basin, to wetland sediments in Suisun Marsh, to bristlecone pine growth rings, to analysis of the tree stumps rooted on the floors of Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and Mono Lake.

The take-away: We live in a region with a wild climate that alternates between drought and floods, a climate that could well become even wilder with the addition of human-caused climate change. And is a region where millions of people now live in towns and cities that are entirely dependent upon a regionwide plumbing system for their water, a plumbing system that was developed during a short period of relatively benign climate conditions.

Ingram writes, “The American West faces a climatic future that is predicted to become generally warmer and drier, with deeper droughts interspersed with larger and more frequent floods. The American West appears to be facing a potential climatic double-whammy: a cyclical return of drier conditions and new greenhouse-gas-induced warming.”

What we know now

Climate Change Evidence and Causes is also written for a general audience. A joint publication of the National Academy of Sciences and Great Britain’s Royal Society, the aim of the publication is to serve as “a key reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative answers about the current state of climate-change science.”

Most of the 24-page booklet consists of questions and answers about climate change, from the most basic – Is the climate warming? - to the more complex - What is ocean acidification and why does it matter? There is also an eight-page booklet summing up the basics of climate change that would be useful for a high school science teacher – or to give to that skeptical relative.

A download of Climate Change Evidence and Causes is available here: The Royal Society

Nevada climate change and clean energy news briefs

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Nevada climate change and clean energy news David Zahrt to march for climate awareness

Carson City’s climate marcher David Zahrt

Carson City man to walk across country to raise climate change awareness

David Zahrt, community climate change activist, urban farmer, beekeeper, and Sierra Club member left Carson City this weekend to join the Great March for Climate Action. The 235 marchers will leave Los Angeles on March 1 and arrive in Washington D.C. on November 1.

David is one of two marchers from Nevada. David, 76, says “I’ll probably be dead before rising sea levels flood coastal cities like New York, New Orleans and San Francisco. But I have kids and grandkids who will have to live with the effects of climate change.”
To follow the route schedule and support the marchers visit climatemarch.org

Giga-rumor – you heard it here first

Tesla Motor’s Elon Musk will announce this week the location of the company’s planned $2 billion factory – dubbed the Gigafactory – that will produce batteries for Tesla electric vehicles. The factory will be powered mostly by renewable resources.

Some are saying the Gigafactory might be in Nevada because we have such abundant solar resources – and the state also has the only currently operating brine pool lithium mine in the country.

DRI breaks 1-MW barrier

The Desert Research Institute announced this week that a new 498-kilowatt renewable energy project on the Reno campus of the Desert Research Institute will boost DRI’s total clean electrical power-generating capacity installed statewide to more than one megawatt (MW). DRI’s solar arrays north and south will save DRI more than $160,000 in electricity costs annually and reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 3.6 million pounds per year.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the completion of these new solar arrays,” said Stephen Wells, DRI President. “Not only are our researchers pioneering new economically and environmentally friendly energy production methods in our Clean Technologies and Renewable Energy Center; we are tangibly demonstrating what can be accomplished with renewable power on both of our campuses.”

Last month was renewables month

Earth Techling reports that close to 100% of the total electricity generation capacity installed in the U.S. in January was renewable energy. Of 325 megawatts of new generation going into service in the month, 287 MW was solar; 30 MW was geothermal steam; 4 MW was wind; 3 MW was biomass; and 1 MW was “other.”

The new renewable generation includes NextEra Energy Inc.’s 20 MW Mountain View Solar project in Clark County, Nevada.

If you have any Nevada climate change and clean energy news items please contact us.

Push to regain Nevada’s lead in energy efficiency

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Clean energy advocates have taken note that Nevada is falling behind in energy efficiency.

In 2008-09, Nevada Power was a leading utility nationwide with respect to energy savings achievement, and Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific combined saved 409 GWh per year from energy efficiency programs implemented in 2008. By 2012, however, NV Energy had gone from being the leader in the region in energy efficiency to being the lowest performing investor-owned utility in the region.

push to regain Nevada's lead in energy efficiency

Speakers at Energy 2030. Photo Clean Energy Project

Energy on the Road
In one step toward a turn around, an event was held this week in Las Vegas to get people together to talk about energy efficiency and productivity. Southwest Energy Efficiency Project’s (SWEEP’s) Nevada representative Tom Polikalas sent us a report:

At the “Energy 2030 on the Road: Las Vegas” event on 2/19, U.S. Congressman Steven Horsford (D-NV) delivered a powerful keynote message that energy efficiency creates jobs, saying “energy efficiency and job creation are two sides of the same coin.” Horsford cited SWEEP’s study, “The $20 Billion Bonanza” that explains how best energy practices could create more than 4,600 new new jobs by 2020 and in other ways help recharge the states economy. State Senator Kelvin Atkinson and Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick also spoke to the capacity crowd that included private sector business leaders as well as other Nevada legislators. The Clean Energy Project hosted the event, with support from other organizations including NV Energy.

Sierra Clun activists rally for energy efficiency

Sierra Club activists rally for energy efficiency

Energy Efficiency petition

The Toiyabe chapter of the Sierra Club is also working to get its members geared up to push for clean energy with a petition on its website and Facebook page asking the state legislature to make energy efficiency a priority: sign it HERE

Senator Reid talks climate change

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Senator Reid talks to constituents at Comma Coffee in Carson City

Senator Harry Reid talked about climate change in two very different venues this week. On Wednesday afternoon, Reid held an informal meet-and-greet in Carson City’s Comma Coffee where he fielded questions from constituents.

Though questions were wide-ranging, over half of the senator’s 45 minutes with Carson City constituents were spent talking about climate change. To the applause of those in attendance, Reid says he does not support the Keystone XL Pipeline. He also talked about the effect of climate change on the severe drought now gripping our state.

The senator seems frustrated by lack of action on climate change. Carson City resident David Zahrt, who leaves tomorrow to join an 8-month-long Great March for Climate Action from Los Angeles to Washington D.C., asked the senator what he and the other marchers could do to get Washington to pay attention to climate. Reid responded, “I suggest you get a lot of Republicans to march with you.”

From Comma Coffee to Pacific Heights

Senator Reid finished the day at a fundraiser at the San Francisco home of billionaire hedge fund investor Tom Steyer. According to Reuters, Steyer hosted “ some of Congress’ most active climate change advocates including Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Tom Udall of New Mexico, and Representative Gary Peters of Michigan.”

The 40-person dinner raised more than $400,000.

“Go All In” – A vision of a 100% renewable energy Nevada

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Climate change will mean more of this: Rim Fire smoke in Carson City, August, 2013. Photo Anne Macquarie

Climate change demands response at all levels. In the lack of effective action internationally and nationally, arguably the boldest actions are being undertaken at the state and even at the local level. Included in these bold ideas are efforts to explore the feasibility of how states and cities, even small countries, can move to using 100% renewable energy for electrical generation.

A 2013 study by Mark Z. Jacobsen of Stanford University, co-authored with scientists from U.C. Davis and Cornell, examined the feasibility of converting New York State’s energy infrastructure to one using wind, water, and sunlight. “The economics of this plan make sense,” said co-author Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University. “Now it is up to the political sphere.”

Scotland is taking the lead with a Scottish national government policy to generate 100% of Scotland’s gross annual electricity consumption from renewable sources, including 500 MW of community and locally-owned renewable energy, all by 2020.

Scotland has a population of 5.3 million and hardly any sunshine. Nevada has a population of 2.8 million, plenty of sunshine, and a reputation as the “Saudi Arabia of geothermal.”

If Scotland can undertake such an effort, why can’t we?

Is anyone thinking this boldly in Nevada?

David Gibson is.

Divid Gibson on 100% renewable energy Nevada

David Gibson

I met David in a hearing of the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor during the 2013 legislative session. David presented his plan for a 100% renewable energy Nevada – he calls it “Go All In” – during a hearing on another energy bill. Some of the committee members were barely polite.

Maybe he hadn’t laid the right groundwork with that committee, but I admired his commitment. Here was someone who saw both the issue- uncontrolled climate change- and the opportunity -Nevada’s abundant renewable energy resources – and wasn’t afraid to put them together into a plan for a Nevada future of 100% renewable energy.

So I decided to interview David.

NCARE: “David, I read “Go All In” your plan for a clean energy future for Nevada. And I first met you in the 2013 legislative session, at a hearing of the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor, where you tried to present the outline of the plan to the committee. Not, unfortunately, to a great reception. What role do you think our state legislators should play in helping us to achieve a 100 renewable energy Nevada?”

DG: My main concern is government getting in the way. For the most part, the legislature does not have a strong background in energy, particularly renewable energy. These are citizens with a wide array of background experiences. For example, in 2007, they passed a law requiring a home energy audit at the point of sale for every home. This could have been great, but regulations never came out and the real estate industry was upset that it would cost them home sales. So before it could go into action, it was repealed in 2011. That cost a lot of my faith in government leading the way to sustainability. The start-stop, tripping-over-your own feet actions we’ve seen at the state and national level have done more harm than good.

At the Federal level, subsidies and tax credits phasing in and out can have a devastating effect on renewable energy development – we can’t afford the same uncertainties at the state level. That’s why I asked legislators to extend the RPS through 2040, steadily increasing it to 100%. Continue reading →

Nevada clean energy and climate change news briefs

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Al Jazeera does better job reporting searing effects of drought in rural Nevada than local papers do

Nevada clean energy and climate change news briefs rural Nevada drought

California and Nevada, January 21, 2014 – notice Nevada’s two big lakes – Pyramid and Tahoe – with no snow surrounding them. Then look east at rural Nevada – bone dry! Photo from NASA

February 11, 2014, Carson City: Freelancer and Las Vegas resident Steve Freiss wrote a great piece for Al Jazeera America on the dire effects of the current drought in rural Nevada. At least I thought it was great. It’s hard to find really good – or actually, any at all – reporting about resource issues in “the rurals,” even in local papers.

In Drought: thinning the herd of ranchers in Nevada, Freiss reports on the “devastating and potentially permanent effect” of the current drought on cattle and alfalfa operations – our state’s third largest industry. Eureka County’s Goicoechea Ranches last year had to send 100 of 700 mother cows to slaughter because they anticipated not having enough feed and water to sustain them. J.J Goicoechea says cattle ranching “won’t come back, and it can’t. I don’t know what happens to these ranches. Maybe they’ll be bought up by larger corporations. I honestly do believe family ranching operations take better care of the resources.”

Speaking of rural drought, U.S. Department of Agriculture sets up regional climate hubs

Last week Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the creation of Regional Hubs for Risk Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change. The “Climate Hubs” will address increasing risks such as fires, invasive pests, devastating floods, and crippling droughts on a regional basis, translating science and research into information farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners can use to adapt and adjust their resource management.

The Hubs will provide information to producers on ways to mitigate risks; public education about the risks climate change poses to agriculture, ranchlands and forests; regional climate risk and vulnerability assessments; and centers of climate forecast data and information.

“For generations, America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners have innovated and adapted to challenges. Today, they face a new and more complex threat in the form of a changing and shifting climate, which impacts both our nation’s forests and our farmers’ bottom lines,” said Vilsack. “USDA’s Climate Hubs are part of our broad commitment to developing the next generation of climate solutions, so that our agricultural leaders have the modern technologies and tools they need to adapt and succeed.”

Climate hubs in the west will be in Corvallis, Oregon; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Davis, California.

For more information, visit www.usda.gov/climatechange.

NV Energy offers deal on LED bulbs

NV Energy has announced in-store discounts to its residential customers on qualifying Energy Star LED light bulbs. LED bulbs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and can save up to seven dollars a year on energy costs for each bulb. The bulbs also last ten times longer than incandescent bulbs.

For more information and to find a nearby participating retailer visit: https://nvenergy.com/lighting

Two organizations to check out

We’ve added Energy Fit Nevada to the links on the right. Energy Fit Nevada works with Nevada residents to perform whole-house energy assessments and complete energy efficient home improvements.

Nevada clean energy and climate change news news briefs Locally grown Nevada produce

Locally grown Nevada produce. Photo Anne Macquarie

Sustainable Nevada is a new Nevada nonprofit that’s working on sustainable food systems in Nevada, looking at the intersection of energy, the built environment and our local food supply. They also have a long-range goal of having a sustainability curriculum adopted in Nevada schools. Sustainable Nevada doesn’t have a website yet – as far as we can tell – but we’ll let you know when they do.

If you have any ideas for Nevada clean energy and climate change news briefs, send them along..

Playing with the smart meter

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How to monitor your home energy use using your smart meter and NV Energy’s webpage

Since I started this blog I’ve become an energy wonk. It’s an vitally important subject, from the global – how do we transition to generating our electricity from renewable resources? – to the most local of the local – my own home and our family budget.

NV Energy replaced customer’s analog meters with smart meters in 2011-2012. The process was not without controversy, with smart meter opponents showing up at PUC meetings to request the opportunity to opt out of the system, citing health and privacy concerns. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, about 9,000 out of 1.45 million customers have opted out of the program.

A smart meter collects energy use data digitally. Unlike traditional meters, it can transmit and receive data too. NV Energy’s smart meter records the amount of energy used every 15 minutes. Now that most customers have smart meters, how can we use them to operate our homes as energy-efficiently as possible?

I decided to find out. To start, I went to NV Energy’s website and registered a username and and password. My account name came up, I clicked on that and found myself on a dashboard page that gave all sorts of interesting information on how we use energy in our house.

How does my home compare?

I liked this one. In the 27 years we’ve owned our small house in Carson City, we’ve put a lot of work into making it as energy efficient as possible: we insulated the attic crawl space and water pipes, installed new dual-pane windows, switched to CFL lightbulbs and so on. It’s good to see it’s paid off.

Here’s what they told me: “ Congratulations! Your home uses less energy than most of the similar homes in your area matching your home energy profile.”

I wondered what used the most energy in our house, and this pie chart told me.

Food storage? That must be the refrigerator we bought with my first paycheck after we moved to Carson City. I clicked on “Control my costs” and got advice about how to operate my refrigerator most efficiently, and the estimated annual savings and cost of a new, energy-efficient model.

Actual Daily and Average Energy Use

January 31 is the day I did the laundry. Twice the kilowatt hours of the other days.

Electric Usage

I noticed my electricity usage went down this month. Why? I went to ‘Detailed Bill Comparison” and found this:

Energy by Day-of-Week

Why is Sunday so high? Must be our weekly Sunday dinner with my mom – usually we serve something that takes a long time on the stovetop or in the oven:

Show My Energy Use

What are those little blips between 12 am and 4 am? Must be when the refrigerator comes on.

I spent a couple of hours on the site – didn’t I say I’m a born-again energy wonk? But I won’t share any more of the mundane details of my home life with you. Check it out yourself.

Nevada clean energy news briefs January 28

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Lake Tahoe sustainability collaborative launches new website

Nevada clean energy news tahoe mood shot

photo Chas Macquarie

Launched in May 2012, The Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative is a grassroots, citizen-based organization participating in a regional conversation about environmental, community, and economic health in the Tahoe region. Here’s their mission statement: To sustain a citizen-based effort to accelerate a shift toward a healthier Tahoe-Truckee community, environment, and economy.

The Collaborative’s work group on Energy-Water-Waste-Efficiency helped to institute a basin-wide plastic ban bag that has recently gone in to effect, and is now working on a Renewable Energy Regional Exploration Project. The community mobility group is working on developing and striping new bike lanes in the basin. Work groups are open to anyone in the Tahoe Truckee region willing to engage and contribute to in the collaborative process – go to the collaborative’s new website HERE for more information.

NextEra Energy begins operation at Mountain View Solar Energy Project in North Las Vegas

NextEra Energy Resources announced this week that its subsidiary, Mountain View Solar, began commercial operation of its Mountain View Solar Energy Project. The 20-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) project is located on approximately 146 acres in the Mountain View Industrial Park in the city of North Las Vegas.

All of the power generated by the Mountain View Solar Project is being provided to NV Energy customers under a long-term power purchase agreement.

“We are proud to be a part of an initiative that not only supports NV Energy’s renewable energy supply, but has also helped to power Clark County’s local economy,” said NextEra Energy Resources President and Chief Executive Officer, Armando Pimentel. “Reaching this important project milestone would not have been possible without the cooperation and hard work of all of our project partners.”

The facility consists of approximately 84,000 individual PV modules installed on ground mounted arrays.

Climate change denial crosses party lines, say University of Nevada researchers

With Republican party leaders now among the foremost deniers of climate change, it would seem logical that Republican voters support them in that stand, wouldn’t it? But a new study by Ted Jelen and Linda Lockett of the University of Nevada finds that’s not necessarily so.

In their recent research, published as Religion, Partisanship, and Attitudes Toward Science Policy, Jelen and Locket find that Republicans are no more likely than Democrats to be skeptical about the science of contentious issues including climate change.

Jelen and Locket used data from the 2006 General Social Survey to examine public attitudes toward three specific issues: evolution, climate change, and stem cell research.

The results, in their words, were surprising: “Party identification is virtually irrelevant to skeptical attitudes toward science issues. With the sole exception of the relationship between Democratic identification and support for stem-cell research, partisanship is not significantly related to any of the issues considered here. Given the nature of elite-level discourse on evolution and climate change, this is a rather unexpected finding.”

Their data, however, is seven years old, seven years in which conservative voters have been subject to a steady drumbeat of climate change denial.

Do you have a Nevada clean energy news story? Contact us.

Legislative Committee on Energy meets in Las Vegas

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State Senator Kelvin Atkinson will chair Legislative Committee on Energy

State Senator Kelvin Atkinson, Photo: Nevada Legislature

“This is important enough to talk about year round, not for 120 days every other year.”

This is what Senator Kelvin Atkinson, chair of the committee, said in his introductory remarks at the first meeting of Nevada’s Legislative Committee on Energy held last week in Las Vegas. The committee was established by a section of AB 428, a bill passed in the 2013 session of the Nevada Legislature.

Nevada clean energy-watchers are uncertain what role the committee will play. Some say its purpose is only to monitor the progress of implementing SB 123 ( the law mandating closure of much of NV Energy’s coal fleet) while others think the committee will take a broader role. Ten bill drafts have been assigned to the committee, so some legislation is expected to emerge.

The Committee heard from Tony Sanchez, NV Energy’s Senior Vice President of Government and Community Strategy, who talked about NV Energy’s renewable energy efforts and what’s in store for the energy industry in the future. Anne Marie Cuneo, Director of Regulatory Operations for the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, backed by Commissioners Rebecca Wagner and David Noble, filled the committee members in on the arcane world of utility regulation. Dan Jacobsen of the Bureau of Consumer Protection talked about the role of the BCP in protecting ratepayer interests, and other speakers talked about their company’s or agency’s energy efforts.

Some potential hot-button themes emerged in questions and comments from committee members.

Net metering, recent Basic Service Charge hike

Senator Atkinson brought up the recent steep jump in fixed charges for Sierra Pacific customers.

Assemblyman David Bobzien said he too was concerned about the hike, especially in relation to the net metering study now taking place. He said the purpose of the study – also mandated by AB 428 – was to take a comprehensive look at all the possible costs and benefits of net metering. He told Commissioner Noble, “ I have this nagging feeling that that increase seemed to be the cart before the horse and will impact the study’s findings.”

Commissioner Wagner urged him to look at the transcript of the meeting and said, “this was not an attempt to address net metering in my opinion.” She said, “If we get rates to a fair rate for everyone, then we can take in net metering component and see what the balance is and what’s appropriate.”

Carbon emissions measurement and recording; upcoming EPA regulations on carbon from existing power plants

Assemblyman Bobzien asked NV Energy’s Tony Sanchez how the company plans to measure and account for the reduction in carbon emissions from the coal plant closures mandated by SB 123: “We want to do everything we can as a state to get credit for this bold step when other states are still playing catch up. What do we need to do to assure that that happens?”

Sanchez didn’t exactly answer the question so Bobzien tried again: “But are we doing everything we need to track emissions right now?”

Sanchez told him they were “talking to the EPA regularly.”

Annemarie Cuneo said she and Commissioner Noble had met with the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection and the EPA to talk about the upcoming carbon emission standard and to make sure Nevada gets credit for actions taken to reduce emissions under SB 123.

Clean energy advocates including NCARE are working in the SB 123 rulemaking dockets to pin down how this carbon measurement will be accomplished. Commissioner Wagner acknowledged that, telling the committee that the topic of benchmarking existing CO2 emissions “came up early and often” in the rulemaking.

Rates

Committee member – and Speaker of the Assembly – Marilyn Kirkpatrick, who never misses an opportunity to let her constituents know that she cares about their utility rates, told Mr. Sanchez that she’d met with “the new folks in charge” at NV Energy after the MidAmerican acquisition, and told them rates are a top priority. She said, “I want to be able to assure people in my district that they will be better off.”

The next meeting of the Legislative Committee on Energy will be held on February 24 in Las Vegas