QUICK NEWS, March 28: Artists Drive Climate Dialogue; DOE Backs New Wires For Wind; Michigan Debate On New Energy Heats Up

Artists Drive Climate Dialogue Talk about climate change ‘heats up’ with Percolator exhibit

Joanna Hlavacek, March 27, 2016 (Lawrence Journal-World)

“… [Art isn’t data-driven or objective by nature. That is why the Lawrence Percolator’s “Heating Up: Artists Respond to Climate Change”] offers room for different voices and different ways to engage the viewer in an often-politicized issue, program organizers say…[The exhibition] is part of a month-long series of cultural and educational events scheduled throughout March and April. Sponsored by the Lawrence Ecology Teams United in Sustainability (LETUS) and Lawrence field office of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, ‘Heating Up’ has been more than a year in the making…[T]here’s a nuance to this conversation that isn’t in the broader conversation happening right now. It’s not black or white. Our hearts are in it too, [one of the artists said]…Artists of varying experience and training, among them professors and students, have contributed works varying from paintings, prints and drawings to sculptures, handmade books and installations [including Geraldine Emily Walsey’s ‘Pathetique’]…” click here for more

'Pathetique' by Geraldine Emily Walsey (click to enlarge)

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DOE Backs New Wires For Wind Feds join wind energy transmission project

Devin Henry, March 25, 2016 (The Hill)

“The Department of Energy (DOE) will join a renewable energy company in planning and developing a 705-mile wind power transmission line project…The agency signed off on the Clean Line Partners' [Plains and Eastern Clean Line because]…it met all the standards necessary for a federal partnership under a 2005 law….[The line] will deliver up to 4,000 megawatts of wind power generated in Oklahoma and Texas to parts of the Mid-South and Southeastern United States. The DOE plans to help developers get the project up and running, the first time the agency has done so since Congress gave it the power to partner with transmission companies in the Energy Policy Act of 2005…[Several proposed Clean Line transmission projects] have run into local opposition [that DOE backing will help bypass]…” click here for more

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Michigan Debate On New Energy Heats Up Michigan Energy Policy Overhaul Pits Power Companies Against Solar Advocates

Sam Ross-Brown, March 28, 2016 (The American Prospect)

“…The battle between Michigan electric utility companies and renewable-energy advocates over a proposed state energy policy overhaul could deal a severe blow to the state’s small but growing solar-power sector. The regulatory overhaul, which mirrors changes being considered in states nationwide, would slash payments for solar consumers who sell excess energy back to utility companies while also significantly weakening the state’s clean-energy mandates…DTE Energy and Consumers Energy [Michigan’s two largest electrical utilities] have together spent more than $3 million over the past year on a massive media and lobbying campaign featuring media buys, campaign contributions to state lawmakers, and lobbying by industry representatives…But environmental advocates warn that the changes could decimate the sector [if lawmakers shift net metering payments from a higher retail rate to a lower wholesale rate]…” click here for more

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