To the editor:
Energy
I’m writing this column from the heart of California’s Sierra Nevada range near Yosemite National Park. It’s beautiful here and not as hot as Las Vegas in early September, but there is ample evidence of rising temperatures as the effects of climate change become increasingly obvious.
Since the 1920s and ’30s when pro racer David Abbott “Ab” Jenkins shattered worldwide land speed records driving his “Mormon Meteor” on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, the playa has become one of the world’s most famous raceways, where backyard builders have always raced alongside the finest automotive engineers in the world.
CARSON CITY — A governor’s committee recommended Thursday that power companies spend about $3 billion on transmission lines to carry renewable energy potential available in rural Nevada to existing transmission lines.
A German company’s plan to build a $1 billion solar thermal power plant in the Amargosa Valley 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas stirred controversy at a meeting Monday night.
Local government and business leaders on Tuesday unveiled Green Chips, a nonprofit organization meant to channel investment into clean energy and energy efficiency while promoting Southern Nevada as a “green” place to live.
Environmental studies major Caryn Wright was looking for a minor that would perfectly complement her course of study. So it was perfect timing for her when the University of Nevada, Las Vegas announced it was adding a minor in solar and renewable energy this fall, thanks to a $500,000 gift from NV Energy that will be used for scholarships, research, equipment and internship. … “It’ll really complement my major,” said Wright, the first student of about 20 so far who have signed up for the minor. “They’ll go hand in hand.” … Tony F. Sanchez, NV Energy’s senior vice president of public policy and external relations, said the energy utility expects it will need workers skilled in renewable energy in the future. So providing shareholder money to help train them was no-brainer for the company.
A day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hosted a daylong green-power discussion featuring former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, Reid took several dignitaries on a road trip Tuesday to see some of Southern Nevada’s newest ecofriendly developments.
About 100 people turned out Monday morning to protest the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wants to change the old electoral axiom: “As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.”
Quit piddling around! That was the earnest exhortation from former President Bill Clinton, who spoke to a sold-out crowd of 900 attendees at Monday’s National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 at UNLV.
In a wide-ranging speech, Clinton referred repeatedly to the 7 million jobs the nation has lost since the recession’s 2007 start. He talked of restoring some of those jobs by unlocking private capital locked down in a credit freeze, and he urged the nation to “take what Nevada is doing and put it on steroids” to develop a green economy.
John Podesta, chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said ideas under discussion at Monday’s National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 will help shape pending legislation in Congress, including a carbon cap-and-trade bill the Senate will consider in the fall.
The technology is here, and incentives are in place, but the task of retrofitting homes in the Las Vegas Valley with solar panels is mired in the sagging economy.
The Silver State will soon run out of major construction projects: The Strip’s massive CityCenter will be complete by the end of the year, and the Hoover Dam bypass bridge will conclude soon as well.