Commercial, Industrial, Regulation, Commercial, Industrial, Regulation  -  June 3, 2017

Weekend reads: Paris accord fact check; auto industry death spiral; Ohio's deregulation bill & more

Every Saturday, we'll bring you five of the most interesting — or quirky; it is the weekend after all — energy stories from around the web that you may have missed this week. This weekend's reads:

Fact-checking President Trump's claims on the Paris climate change deal (The Washington Post): In his speech announcing his decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord on climate change, President Trump frequently relied on dubious facts and unbalanced claims to make his case that the agreement would hurt the U.S. economy. Notably, he only looked at one side of the scale — claiming the agreement left the United States at a competitive disadvantage, harming U.S. industries. But he often ignored the benefits that could come from tackling climate change, including potential green jobs. 

Report: There's an Auto Industry Death Spiral Coming (Greentech Media): Over the next 15 years, the American auto industry will face a death spiral of epic proportions that will lead to plummeting demand, cratering profits and slumping sales. Car dealerships and sales of traditional gasoline-powered cars will both evaporate. Those findings are delivered by a research report released earlier this month from analyst firm RethinkX.

Under Trump, energy security is running on empty (Ernest Moniz via The Hill): The administration proposes to cut domestic discretionary spending by $54 billion below the cap agreed to on a bipartisan basis by Congress, affecting nearly every aspect of federal investment in science and technology, education, the environment and health. As a former secretary of energy who remains deeply engaged in energy issues, I have significant concerns about the impact of these cuts on our energy future. 

New Ohio bill would revamp state power market for full deregulation (Utility Dive): A bill in the Ohio legislature would overturn the state’s current electric power regime and replace it with a fuller version of deregulation that would require the state’s investor owned utilities to divest their generation assets, according to The Plain Dealer. Since 2008 Ohio’s power sector has been ruled by the so-called Energy Security Plan — Ohio's version of integrated resource plans — which often results in lengthy regulatory proceedings as stakeholders debate utility investments and bill riders.

US Renewable Energy Provides 19.35% Of US Electricity In First Quarter (Clean Technica): The U.S. Energy Information Administration this week published figures which showed that renewable energy sources accounted for 19.35% of U.S. electricity in the first quarter, which is well in advance of the Administration's own predictions for renewable energy. Ken Bossong of the SUN DAY Campaign sent out an email this week highlighting the latest figures from the U.S. EIA's latest Electric Power Monthly.

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