October 15, 2007

Absolute dollar figures can be hard to come by, but there's no doubt that renewables and clean tech are growing exponentially as a percentage of venture capitalists' portfolios.

Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), puts the figure north of 4 percent, up from less than 0.5 percent seven or eight years ago. That's an 800 percent increase. And the pace is accelerating. Raj Atluru, a managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the largest venture firms, estimates that clean tech is the fourth largest venture category among all categories, up from seventh largest just three years ago. In 2006, he says, it accounted for 10 percent of all venture capital investments. Ira Ehrenpreis, general partner in the venture firm Technology Partners, puts the number even higher, at about 14 percent of all venture dollars in the fourth quarter of 2006.

October 12, 2007

American Electric Power's long legal battle has ended. It has agreed to pay billions to cut pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act by two-thirds over the next decade. The $4.6 billion settlement comes amidst a U.S. Supreme Court decision last April - a ruling that now forces utilities with older coal fired plants to pony up for new technologies if they upgrade to produce more power.

The lower courts were mixed on this issue, with some ruling that the utilities were just performing routine maintenance and should not have to make expensive investments. The overall trend, though, has been against utilities. Now that the Supreme Court has weighed in against Duke Energy, the writing is on the wall. AEP's latest move will likely motivate the remaining utilities that have not reached settlements to do so before President Bush leaves office and a possible Democratic administration would enter.

October 10, 2007

The leading presidential candidates are for the most part using standard political rhetoric when they talk about energy, calling for energy security, energy independence, or self-sufficiency. They are all jumping on the alternative energy bandwagon, bandying about any number of figures for what percentage of the nation's energy needs should be supplied by alternative sources and when.

However, some of the candidates have gone a little further, providing some concrete details of how they view energy and what policies they might espouse if elected.

NEW YORK - Almost all Americans will pay a lot more to heat their homes this winter, even though temperatures are expected to be warmer than average.

That's the sobering message from an Energy Department report Tuesday that estimates heating oil costs are likely to jump 22 percent and natural gas bills, on average, will rise 10 percent between October and March.

And while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast a milder than average winter in most parts of the country, the agency also predicted Tuesday that temperatures will be 1.3 percent colder than last year.

State Companies See Big Gains Ahead Tackling Greenhouse Gases

By Thomas Content, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Oct. 7--Sixth part in an occasional series

What's good for the planet, it turns out, could be great for Wisconsin's largest company.

Energy experts with Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc. are busy crafting their first proposal aimed at winning a piece of an ambitious $5 billion plan to reduce global warming by retrofitting energy-wasting buildings in 16 of the world's largest cities.