QUICK NEWS, Sept. 24: CALIF TARGETS 1.5MIL 0-EMISSIONS CARS BY 2024; BOLD $8BIL WIND-WIRES-STORAGE PLAN; ROCKEFELLERS DIVEST OIL FOR NEW ENERGY

ROCKEFELLERS DIVEST OIL FOR NEW ENERGY Divestment Statement

Sept, 2014 (Rockefeller Brothers Fund)

“…[In 2010, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF)] board of trustees approved a commitment of up to 10 percent of the endowment to investments…[in] clean energy technologies and other business strategies that advance energy efficiency, decrease dependence on fossil fuels, and mitigate the effects of climate change…Given the RBF’s deep commitment to combating climate change, the Fund is now committing to a two-step process to address its desire to divest from investments in fossil fuels. Our immediate focus will be on coal and tar sands, two of the most intensive sources of carbon emissions…[W]e are committed to reducing our exposure to coal and tar sands to less than one percent of the total portfolio by the end of 2014…[We] will work with the RBF Investment Committee and board of trustees to determine an appropriate strategy for further divestment over the next few years…[O]ur divestment from fossil fuels, which is now underway, will be accomplished through a careful process of evaluating our exposure and a phased approach that proceeds as quickly as is prudent…” click here for more

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BOLD $8BIL WIND-WIRES-STORAGE PLAN Duke Energy joint venture part of $8 billion bid to supply green energy to Southern California

John Downey, Sept. 23, 2014 (Charlotte Business Journal)

Duke Energy’s Duke-American Transmission will join with Pathfinder Renewable Wind Energy, Magnum Energy, and Dresser-Rand to propose a ground-breaking $8 billion wind energy and wind storage system for the Southern California Public Power Authority. The plan calls for Duke to ante up $1.3 billion and build a 525 mile, $2.6 billion, high voltage transmission line to Utah for Wyoming wind energy-generated electricity, where an existing line can deliver the power to Los Angeles and, through California’s transmission system, across the state. Pathfinder Renewable Wind Energy will build a $4 billion, 2,100-megawatt Wyoming wind farm and Pathfinder, Magnum Energy, and Dresser-Rand will build a $1.5 billion, 1,200 megawatt, 41 million cubic foot compressed air energy storage (CAES) facility in four salt formations in Utah. CAES has been used for wind energy storage in Germany since 1978 and in Alabama since 1991 and projects are planned or under construction in Texas, the UK, and Iowa but it has yet to be proven economically practical. click here for more

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CALIF TARGETS 1.5MIL 0-EMISSIONS CARS BY 2024 California Leading on Emissions as Brown Signs New Laws

Michael B. Marois and Alison Vekshin, Sept. 23, 2014 Bloomberg BusinessWeek

California Governor Jerry Brown signed 11 new bills into law and announced a new goal to get 1.5 million zero-emission cars on California’s roads in the next ten years. California had 709,766 hybrids in 2013, up from 337,881 in 2009, and, thanks to a $5,000 state tax rebate for electric and zero-emission cars, now has 60,988 electric vehicles, 40% of the U.S. plug-in fleet, and has spent $158 on rebates since 2010. Polls show Brown in a very strong position for re-election and an unprecedented second two-term governorship. California’s 2002 law requiring a cut in vehicle carbon dioxide after 2009 set a standard subsequently enacted by the federal government in 2012. Zero-emission vehicles are: battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel-cell-electric vehicles. click here for more

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