QUICK NEWS, February 16: NEW ENERGY IN THE NEW BUDGET; WHAT PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THE SMART GRID; BRINGING ENERGY NUMBERS HOME

NEW ENERGY IN THE NEW BUDGET
Obama’s Pitch on Energy
Editorial, February 14, 2012 (NY Times)

"President Obama’s new budget lays down a clear and much-needed challenge to the Republican House’s large number of climate-change deniers and all of the Republican Party’s many panderers to Big Oil…The budget calls for spending $6.7 billion on clean-energy programs in fiscal-year 2013 — 13 percent more than Congress appropriated for this fiscal year. It also calls for an end to $4 billion in annual tax cuts and subsidies now enjoyed by the oil and gas industry…

"…[P]rograms included in the budget…Increased financing for the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which underwrites a broad range of energy efficiency initiatives. The budget asks for $2.3 billion, up from $1.6 billion…Reauthorization of cash grants to wind, solar and other renewable energy companies…expired at the end of last year…[A]nother year of financing could create nearly 40,000 new jobs in the solar industry alone."

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"…Extension of a vital production tax credit for the wind industry that is scheduled to expire this year. Without some assurance that the credit will continue, investments in wind turbines and other equipment will dry up…[And incentives to] encourage the building of more energy efficient commercial buildings; promote tough new fuel-economy and greenhouse-gas standards for vehicles; and support the Interior Department’s aggressive program of permitting new renewable energy projects on public lands…

"Last year, the five biggest oil companies racked up $137 billion in profits. They and their allies in Congress will fight to maintain their subsidies. Mr. Obama will have to push back. The cuts would not cost jobs or slow exploration. What they would do is save the government $4 billion to spend on the country’s energy future."


WHAT PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THE SMART GRID
Consumer Pulse Research Program – Wave 2
December 11, 2011 (Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative)

"…Smart grid awareness remains low: About half of consumers (51%) say they have never heard the term and another one-fifth (21%) say that they have heard the term smart grid but don’t know much about what it means…Awareness levels are similar for smart meters (46% have never heard the term and 20% don’t know much about what it means).

"…Knowledge of smart grid and smart meter varies by demographics and by consumer segment…Most people now have positive or neutral impressions of smart grid: 54% of those who are familiar with the term say that their general feelings about smart grid are favorable; 21% say neutral; 15% say negative; and 10% don’t know…General impressions of smart meters are about the same, at 54% favorable, 23% neutral."

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"…Smart grid/meter favorability vary by demographics and consumer segment…Seven benefits were tested to determine which ones consumers feel are most/least important. All seven benefits are considered important by at least 80% of consumers.

"…Overall the most important benefit is…A smart grid senses problems and reroutes power automatically. This prevents some outages and reduces the lengthof those that do occur…[T]he benefit that the highest percentage of customers said was important enough to help justify a higher electric bill is…Smart grid reduces greenhouse gas emissions by making it easier to connect renewable energy sources to the electricity grid…Five of the seven benefits were identified as most important by at least one of the five SGCC segments…"


BRINGING ENERGY NUMBERS HOME
Taking Steps to Make Energy Data More Accessible
Mathew Lawless, February 7, 2012 (U.S. Department of Energy)

"From economic projections and fuel costs to renewable energy potential estimates and power outage reports, the Energy Department produces vast amounts of data. These data are most valuable when they are being used to produce reports, analyses, tools, and applications, and so it is no surprise that we are always looking for ways to make energy data more accessible.

"That is why we’re excited about the growth of tools for making energy data available via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). APIs allow web and mobile applications to access updated energy data in a variety of formats, and often simplify the process of developing a data-driven application."

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"The Socrata Open Data API (SODA) is one of these new tools. Data.gov makes this service available to federal agencies, providing a platform for interacting with data online and connecting that data to applications via the API. We’re just getting started with hosting energy data on SODA…

"OpenEI is another example of Energy Department web services, this one sponsored by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. OpenEI hosts a variety of U.S. and international energy data, with a focus on renewables. In particular, OpenEI contains a database of incentives and policies that encourage renewable energy generation and energy efficiency, and this database is available to developers…"