Business of Clean Energy in Alaska Conference 1 -

I came into as the panel had just started:

10:45-12:15pm
Attracting Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Businesses: Effective Policy and the Impact On the State’s Economy
A discussion of the means by which Alaska can attract EE /RE businesses to the state through policy design.

• Moderator: Larry Flowers National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

• Lori Bird Senior Analyst, NREL, Golden CO
• Noah Long National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), San Francisco CA
• Thomas J. Tuffey Director, PennFuture Center for Energy Enterprise and Environment, West Chester PA

The pictures show the speakers in order. The moderator is on the right of the podium.


Here's what I got out of this session:

Three key terms we should know:
Feeding Tariffs
Net Metering
Decoupling

I'll try to put links up to these later.







The basic issue is mental. People are so used to the old way of doing things, plus large traditional energy companies have set up regulatory environments that favor themselves and the status quo. But these panelists convinced me that there are very feasible alternative futures if we can let go of the old models.





And that's happening everywhere. California was Noah's subject. He said his presentation was online, and I'll try to link to it later.





Tuffey impressed me the most. He talked about the nitty gritty work of getting organized, getting credibility through expertise, and working with the key players, including businesses to help them understand their opportunities. Go to all the utility rate setting meetings and be involved in all work on regulations and lawmaking. He spoke without slides and spoke with conviction and with connection to the audience the other two speakers didn't have.

As always, this is just a snapshot to give you a sense of what is going on here at the Denaina Center in Anchorage. Given my bandaged together fingers I decided to had write my notes (right hand is ok).