GHG Emissions, Commercial, Industrial, Sourcing Renewables  -  June 22, 2019

Weekend reads: Energy transition in 12 charts; Cities vs. climate change

It's the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web:

The global transition to clean energy, explained in 12 charts (Vox)  As you might have heard, the planet is warming up, and in response, people are trying to switch to cleaner energy, to heat it up less, or at least more slowly. So how’s that going? A report released Monday goes into that question in considerable detail. The Renewables Global Status Report (GSR), released annually by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21, a think tank), digs into the growth rates of various energy sources, the flows of clean energy investment, and the world’s progress on its sustainability goals.It is a treasure trove of information. It is also ... really long. 250 pages long. So many words!

Visualizing U.S. Energy Use in One Giant Chart (Visual Capitalist)  If you feel like you’ve seen this diagram before, you probably have. Every year, it’s assembled by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a research center founded by UC Berkeley and funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy. The ambitious aim is to chart all U.S. energy use in one Sankey diagram, including the original energy source (i.e. nuclear, oil, wind, etc.) as well as the ultimate end use (i.e. residential, commercial, etc.) for the energy that was generated.

How Rival Lawyers Teamed Up To Give Solar Power A Huge Boost (Forbes)  After three and a half years of work, an ambitious plan to slash the legal costs of building solar farms around the world has borne fruit. It started with the launch of The Terrawatt Initiative on the sidelines of the Paris climate talks in 2015. The coalition was one of three international solar alliances to launch at COP21. After what might seem from the outside like a slow start, it could now rapidly become the most impactful. In essence, as part of The Terrawatt Initiative’s efforts to scale up solar, they decided to target the legal bills. 

Are cities the Green New Deal's most viable frontier? (Utility Dive)  The national Green New Deal generated heat in Congress when it was introduced in early 2019, but cities are using it to heat up inspiration to battle climate change. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, spearheaded the national plan, a nonbinding resolution that calls for public investment in renewable energy and the power grid in a push toward decarbonization. Similar proposals have floated for more than a decade in some form, with Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign proposing comparably bold action.

Oregon sends police to bring back Republicans who left state over climate bill (CNN)  Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday authorized state police to locate Senate Republicans and bring them back to the state Capitol after some left the state to block the chamber's proceedings. After more than eight hours of fruitless negotiations late into Wednesday night, Republican state senators in Oregon walked out of a session on Thursday over disagreements on HB 2020, a cap and trade climate bill. All 11 GOP senators failed to appear later Thursday for floor proceedings, leaving the legislative body two senators short of a quorum, according to Kate Kondayen, a spokeswoman for Brown.

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