Sustainability
Whose endorsement is it anyway?
In a battle of endorsements, clean energy groups weigh in on upcoming ballot measures. In a joint statement, Solar Energy Industries Association and the Vote Solar Action Fund announced its support for Question 6. If passed, it would require all Nevada electric service providers to generate or acquire at least half their power from renewable […]
Geothermal industry comes out against Question 3
The Geothermal Resources Council Policy Committee, an industry association that advocates for public policies that will promote the development and utilization of geothermal resources, has announced its opposition to the proposed Energy Choice Initiative on the 2018 ballot. If passed Question 3 would direct the Nevada Legislature to “establish an open, competitive retail electric energy […]
What Question 3 and Question 6 say about renewable energy
Let’s talk about that energy initiative. No, not that one. The other one. There are two energy-related questions on the ballot this November — Question 3 (known as the Energy Choice Initiative) and Question 6 (known as the Renewable Energy Standard Initiative). If you’ve heard of the former but not the latter, you wouldn’t be […]
Trump’s plan to boost coal will hurt Nevada, groups warn
Nevada conservationists joined the chorus of critics nationwide and blasted the Trump administration’s plan to boost output at coal-burning power plants. Trump moved formally Tuesday to replace President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, an environmental policy that aimed to curb climate change by moving the power sector away from coal and toward renewable energy sources […]
Conservationists hail ruling against “water grab”
A ruling Friday could mark the end of a three-decade fight over the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) plan to pump groundwater from eastern Nevada aquifers to Las Vegas, according to critics of the “water grab.” But the state engineer promised that water permit denials issued by the Nevada Division of Water Resources (NDWR) Friday […]
Mi Familia Vota: Question 3 hurts minorities, low-income communities
Mi Familia Vota, a national nonprofit with a record of active organization within Southern Nevada’s Latino communities, announced its opposition to Question 3 Friday, saying it could potentially harm people of color. If passed, the ballot measure would amend the Nevada constitution to allow companies to sell electricity on an open market. It has heavy […]
Environmental groups redoubling outreach to people of color
Communities of color are more vulnerable to environmental health hazards, the impacts of climate change and environmental injustices. National reports continue to confirm the persistence of environmental racism — how racial minorities are disproportionately impacted by environmental issues like pollution. A study released this year in the American Journal of Public Health found African Americans […]
Nevada oil & gas: Production still miniscule, but leasing is booming
Last week, the prospect of oil and gas drilling in the Ruby Mountains near Elko prompted alarms, particularly within the conservation community and among some politicians. Meantime, other parts of Nevada are already hotbeds for oil and gas lease applications — if not oil & gas production. Thursday E&E News, a publication well-known among people […]
Guinn Center report on Energy Choice Initiative: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“We cannot make a conclusive determination as to whether restructuring, all else equal, contributes to rate increases or rate decreases.” That’s the main takeaway from a Guinn Center report released Thursday on the impact of Question 3, also called the Energy Choice Initiative, if passed by voters in November. The nonprofit, bipartisan Nevada think tank’s […]
Question 6: Twice as good as Question 3?
The first thing to know about Question 6 is it is not Question 3. Question 6, also known as the Renewable Energy Promotion Initiative, is a ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, would require every provider of electric service in Nevada to generate or acquire at least half its power from renewable sources by […]
The shared values of Scott Pruitt and Adam Laxalt
“I can think of no one better to lead this agency,” Adam Laxalt wrote when Scott Pruitt was nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency. In a January 2017 guest column published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal — like Laxalt, a Sheldon Adelson property — Nevada’s attorney general gushed about the “highly-qualified (sic) men and […]
National labor union weighs in on Question 3
Someone new has chimed in on the contentious energy-regulation measure that is Question 3. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) on Monday issued a strongly worded statement in opposition of the ballot measure, calling it an “anti-worker, anti-consumer initiative.” Question 3 would require the Nevada Legislature to establish an open, […]