Energy Procurement, Regulation, Regulation, Solar  -  February 11, 2017

Weekend reads: Trump's coal promise; California's costly oversupply; a conservative carbon tax & 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:

Goldman Sees Cheaper Energy From Border Tax But Not in U.S. (Bloomberg): A proposed U.S. border-adjustment tax would make fuels that provide half the world’s energy cheaper -- for everyone except Americans. That's the conclusion of Goldman Sachs analysts including Damien Courvalin. A tax like the one being discussed in the U.S. Congress would cause the dollar to appreciate, driving down the price of coal and liquefied natural gas, which are priced globally in the U.S. currency, they said in a Feb. 9 report.

Californians are paying billions for power they don't need (Los Angeles Times): We're using less electricity. Some power plants have even shut down. So why do state officials keep approving new ones? The bucolic orchards of Sutter County north of Sacramento had never seen anything like it: a visiting governor and a media swarm — all to christen the first major natural gas power plant in California in more than a decade.

Sean Spicer: Coal will be one of the cleanest uses of technology that we have (The Independent): White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that the US would produce "clean coal" and that rolling back regulations from coal plants would be done in a way that was "environmentally friendly." He told reporters that the Environmental Protection Agency, which will be led by Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt who once sued the same agency, will liberate coal plants so that they can stay open and keep existing jobs.

'A Conservative Climate Solution': Republican Group Calls for Carbon Tax (The New York Times):  A group of Republican elder statesmen is calling for a tax on carbon emissions to fight climate change. The group, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, with former Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former secretary of the Treasury, says that taxing carbon pollution produced by burning fossil fuels is “a conservative climate solution” based on free-market principles.

Jimmy Carter: Renewable energy can help Trump create jobs (The Associated Press):  Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday millions of jobs could be created in the United States if President Donald Trump embraced renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar and wind power. Carter, a Democrat who was the first U.S. president to install solar panels at the White House, said he hoped the Republican Trump would give it "deep consideration."

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