Sen. Bernie Sanders and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency say the Vermont National Guard is a national model for what other military bases can do to cut their reliance on fossil fuels and become less dependent on foreign oil.

Sanders and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson toured a solar power installation Thursday at the Air Guard Base in South Burlington.

The project was completed in October of last year after Sanders, as chair of the Senate Green Jobs Subcommittee, helped to secure $8.5 million to build it. Today, the 1.45-megawatt project is one of the largest solar installations at any Guard base in the country.

Sanders says that, although the U.S. Defense Department is the leading consumer of energy in the world, Vermont’s National Guard has taken the lead in embracing new, locally-produced technology.

“This project supported jobs for Vermont solar businesses and installers and used panels made in the United States of America,” Sanders said, standing in front of panels that use solar trackers. “The Vermont National Guard deserves national recognition as a model of what we can accomplish at military bases in this country in terms of sustainable energy.”

Read the whole article >> 

Few who are familiar with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would associate him with innovations in the military.

On Tuesday, he broke — or rather, reshaped — the familiar mold.

At a Senate subcommittee panel with armed forces and Environmental Protection Agency experts, Sanders solidified an emerging energy policy that he said would not only save the lives of soldiers, but likely reduce the likelihood of further wars for oil.

The model for the policy is closer to Sanders’ backyard. With the help of a $5 million grant secured by the senator, the Vermont Air National Guard brought online a 1.45 megawatt photovoltaic installation that is on target to save the South Burlington base about $245,000 a year.

Read the whole article >>

Bernie Sanders used to be Congressman-at-large from Vermont. Now he’s Vermont’s junior Senator. In so many ways, however, he’s the nation’s Senator-at-large, showing the way when so many others in Congress have lost theirs.

While a good chunk of Congress, including a majority of the freshman class in the House, are climate-change deniers, Sanders has no illusions about where we need to be headed. That’s why he introduced the 10 Million Solar Rooftops bill last June. That bill, now with seven co-sponsors, was approved for a vote by the full Senate in December. It’s also why he introduced legislation to end oil and coal subsidies last year. That bill got just 35 votes in the Senate. But he vowed Tuesday not to give up.

Read the whole article (with video) >>

Sen. Bernie Sanders has a new bill out to kill fossil fuel subsidies that come in the form of tax breaks for the oil and gas industry. Instead, Sanders would redirect those funds to generate 10 million solar roofs in America, which would create installation jobs and significantly reduce fossil fuel consumption.

“We’ve got to end all of the tax breaks for the oil companies and coal companies and I’m going to introduce legislation to do just that,” Sanders told demonstrators clad in black-and-white striped referee shirts who rallied to “blow the whistle” on members of Congress and Big Oil.

Ending tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas companies would reduce the deficit by more than $40 billion over the next 10 years. Sanders’ legislation will end those tax breaks and tens of billions of dollars in other special subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.

Read the whole article >>

If you read just the headlines these days, you might think renewable energy in America is going the way of Solyndra. Don’t take our word for it: a recent headline from Fox News declared “ENTIRE Solar Industry on Brink of Collapse.”

We cannot allow long-time opponents of renewable energy to focus the discussion only on Solyndra (whose higher priced panels could not compete as solar costs came down) when we should be thinking about competing with China to win the next energy revolution. Why? Because the race is on to put the right policies in place so hundreds of thousands of new, good-paying renewable energy jobs will be created here, and not in China. With Bloomberg New Energy Finance reporting that for the first time ever, global investments in renewable electricity have exceeded investments in fossil fuel power plants, the question is not whether renewable energy is creating jobs; it is which country is going to lead the clean energy jobs revolution. We want it to be America.

The truth is we can win this race. The American solar energy industry is thriving, as is the renewable energy industry more broadly. Just look at the facts: we have doubled the number of solar jobs in America since 2009, and today more than 100,000 Americans work in the solar industry, at more than 5,000 companies in every single state. These include manufacturing, installation, and supply chain jobs.

Last year, we installed nearly 1,000 megawatts of solar power in the United States, more than double the amount installed in 2009. With the solar industry growing at a rate of 69 percent annually, it is one of America’s fastest growing industries and is creating jobs all across the country. The cost of solar panels has fallen 30 percent over just the last two years, continuing a long-term decline in the price of solar.

As solar becomes more cost-competitive with conventional fossil fuels, everyone from Walmart to the United States Marine Corps is looking to solar. Walmart is installing solar panels at 130 stores in California and says “Walmart has reduced energy expenses by more than a million dollars through our solar program.” The military is using solar energy with battery storage to fully power forward operating bases in Afghanistan, and Marine Colonel Bob Charette says for the Marines renewable energy is “about saving lives” by reducing the number of dangerous fuel convoys needed for resupply.

The wind industry is also growing rapidly. Texas alone has more than 10,000 megawatts of wind energy installed, which is equivalent in capacity to 10 nuclear reactors. Iowa now gets 20 percent of its electricity from wind. There are 75,000 wind energy jobs in America today, and more than 400 manufacturing facilities in 43 states. The price of wind energy has dropped by 90 percent since 1980, and wind electricity today is competitive with fossil fuels at 5 to 6 cents per kilowatt hour. At the same time, we are increasing American manufacturing of wind turbines, and now 60 percent of turbine components installed in the United States are made in America, up from 25 percent in 2005.

In these tough economic times, the story of renewable energy in the United States is actually a rare good news story. Renewable energy is helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, is making our nation more energy independent, and is cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

As with every energy technology in the past, federal policies play an important role in supporting renewable energy in America. Key among those policies is a provision known as the Treasury Grant Program (or 1603) which turns an existing wind and solar tax credit into a grant. This provides better financing options for American renewable energy developers and has helped to attract nearly $23 billion in private sector investments in renewable energy, supporting 22,000 projects. Unfortunately this program is set to expire at the end of this year, unless Congress acts to extend it. What is at stake in this fight? If this program expires, one study shows that financing for renewable energy projects would be cut in half, just at the time when renewable energy is experiencing explosive growth.

Although Solyndra is the major headline right now, the real challenge is that Congress is debating whether we can even extend the Treasury Grant Program and other important renewable energy incentives for another year.

Meanwhile, China outpaces the United States by a 2-to-1 margin in clean energy investments according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. America needs to out-compete China on solar and wind, not surrender to China. At a time of nagging unemployment, with the middle class squeezed, and greenhouse gas emissions rising, it is imperative that our nation take the lead in creating clean energy jobs right here in America.

It is time to put in place stable, long-term policies to support these critical industries. Rather than fight to turn one energy company’s demise into partisan points, it is time to point the way towards our energy future — so that all Americans win.

Read the original article >>

Assistant professor Paul Hines at the University of Vermont is focused on researching ways to improve the nation’s electrical grid, which is why he was invited early on to participate in discussions between the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and Vermont leaders on a joint effort to help bring the grid into the 21st century.

Monday, officials announced the culmination of those talks — the creation of a Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation, a $15 million effort over three years funded by the Department of Energy, Sandia and Vermont entities, including state government and UVM.

Sandia Vice President Rick Stulen said the center will focus on research in three areas:

• Integrating renewable energy onto the power grid. Vermont could become a national leader in this area, Stulen said.

• Ensuring reliability and security of the burgeoning smart grid and smart meters.

• Providing the capacity for “electrifying the fleet” as electric vehicles move to the fore in coming years.

Read the whole article >>

(Host) A new energy research center will be coming to Vermont.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Governor Peter Shumlin announced a three-year partnership Monday morning with the Sandia National Laboratory.

The plan calls for Sandia to establish a Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation. It will be located at the University of Vermont.

Rick Stulen is the vice president of the Sandia National Laboratory.

He says Vermont is a small state where the laboratory can get something done, and the state’s focus on renewable energy and smart grid technology will be among the areas of research covered by the lab.

Read the whole article >>

UVM is to become home to the Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told the Burlington Free Press editorial board. He was joined by officials from Sandia National Laboratories, an arm of the U.S. Department of Energy based in New Mexico.

The new center begins as a three-year, $15 million commitment, Sanders said. Sandia is to spend $9 million, the Department of Energy $3 million and Vermont and UVM $3 million, Sanders said.

Read the whole article >>

The Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation will be housed at the University of Vermont.

The three-year project is a partnership among the state of Vermont, Sandia National Laboratories of New Mexico, UVM and other academic institutions, Vermont utility companies and Efficiency Vermont — a statewide energy efficiency utility program.

“It is our goal that this Vermont/Sandia partnership will lead to a long-term national lab presence in Vermont, and that our state and the nation can benefit from the research conducted here for years to come,” said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who visited Sandia, the New Mexico research facility, in 2008.

Read the whole article >>

Gov. Peter Shumlin credits Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for bringing a new multi-million dollar Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation to the state. Sanders was “like a dog with a bone” on the issue, recalled the governor at a joint press conference on Monday.

The project, a partnership between Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Vermont, Green Mountain Power and Vermont businesses, will create “a revolution in the way we are using power,” Shumlin predicts.

Over the next three years, the center will have up to $15 million to accelerate energy efficiency, move toward renewable and localized sources of energy, and make Vermont “the first state to have near-universal smart meter installations,” Sanders announced. Sandia will invest $3 million a year, Shumlin added, along with $1 million each from the Department of Energy and state coffers.

Read the whole article >>