Regulation, Utilities, Finance, Regulation, Solar, Wind  -  November 9, 2016

Election roundup: The top 5 energy stories

Republican Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency Nov. 8, bringing with him a series of energy policy proposals including the rollback of federal legislation and promises to resurrect a hurting coal and gas industry.  Across the states, the day also brought to the ballots a series of clean energy proposals, including a Nevada initiative, backed by two large electricity customers, to break up the electric utility monopoly of NV Energy.

To help you parse through it all, Smart Energy Decisions has highlighted the five of the top post-election energy stories:

Trump Can't Stop the Energy Revolution (Bloomberg Gadfly): The planet is warming, dangerously so, and burning more coal will make it worse. President-elect Donald Trump thinks man-made climate change is a hoax and he's promised to revive the U.S. coal industry by cutting regulation. So renewables are dead in the water, right? Maybe not.

All bets are off: 4 takeaways on what President Trump means for the power sector (Utility Dive): For the power sector, Trump’s election is likely an unwelcome development. U.S. utility companies gave more money to Clinton than any other candidate this election cycle, while none made sizeable donations to Trump. 

Trump’s Election Could Threaten Global Climate Agreement (Scientific American): Donald Trump's surprise victory in the presidential race stunned climate advocates and threatens to unravel President Obama's policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and expand renewable energy. The Republican outsider flummoxed pollsters and analysts who predicted an easy win for Democrat Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of State, who pledged to slash the use of gasoline by a third and oversee an aggressive expansion of solar and wind energy.

Washington voters reject initiative to impose carbon tax on fossil fuels (The Seattle Times): The nation's first state ballot measure to impose a carbon tax on fossil fuels failed Tuesday on a crowded slate of statewide initiatives in Washington. 

Florida voters say no to misleading solar amendment (Miami Herald): Florida voters rejected Amendment 1 on Tuesday, the utility-backed measure to limit rooftop solar expansion, after a scrappy, grassroots campaign and last-minute revelations raised doubts about the proponents’ claims that their goal was to expand solar generation. 

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