Associated Press: Facing Backlash, Hillary Clinton Says Coal Still Has a Future
Facing a backlash from Appalachian Democrats, Hillary Clinton's campaign on Monday tried to reaffirm her commitment to coal communities one day after declaring on national television she was going to "to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
Clinton's comments came during a Sunday night appearance on CNN, where she was asked a question about how her policies would benefit poor white people in Southern states who generally vote Republican.
"I'm the only candidate, which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity, using clean renewable energy as the key, into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," Clinton said. "We're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people."
InsideClimate News: Arch Coal Backs Away From Huge Montana Mine
The writing has been on the wall as domestic and global coal markets have evaporated, but the announcement last week by St. Louis-based Arch Coal still came with a loud thud. Arch, the second largest U.S. coal producer, now in bankruptcy, announced it would no longer seek a permit for the largest proposed coal mine in the country, in Montana's Otter Creek Valley.
The company cited "further deterioration in coal markets" in its decision to table its application to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for a mine in southeastern Montana's portion of the Powder River Basin that contains 1.4 billion tons of coal.
IEEE Spectrum: GM Starts Catching Up in Self-Driving Car Tech With $1 Billion Acquisition of Cruise Automation
It should be obvious by now that autonomy is the future of cars. Obvious or not, large automotive manufacturers have been (predictably) slow to adapt, which is why the most sophisticated autonomous car you can buy right now, the Tesla Model S, comes from a company that didn't even exist 15 years ago.
In an attempt to brute-force itself into relevancy, General Motors (the parent company of Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC, among other brands) invested $500 million in Lyft "to create an integrated network of on-demand autonomous vehicles" back in January. And last Friday, GM followed this up with the acquisition (worth an estimated $1 billion) of a small autonomous car startup based in Silicon Valley called Cruise Automation.
Arizona Republic: Aligned Data Center in Phoenix Will Have APS Microgrid
A $600 million data center in north Phoenix will test out new microgrid technology in a partnership with Arizona Public Service Co.
The Aligned Data Center at Interstate 17 and Union Hills Road is taking over a former Honeywell facility, and APS is building both a new substation to serve the power needs and 63 megawatts of diesel generators on the building itself.
One megawatt of power capacity is enough to supply the needs of about 250 homes at once, while the generator is running.
PV Magazine: Renewables Jobs in Australia Fall
The effects of policy uncertainty regarding renewable deployment on job creation have been demonstrated in the latest renewable energy job figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today. Australia lost 470 jobs in the renewable sector year-over-year, bringing the total to 14,020 in 2014-15. The ABS’ Director of Environmental Statistics, Mark Lound, noted that the figures are the continuation of a trend that commenced in 2011-12.
"Solar energy (including rooftop solar PV, solar hot water, and large-scale solar PV) is the most significant source of employment among renewable energy activities,” said Lound in a statement. “In 2014-15, annual full-time-equivalent employment in solar was 8,310 or 59% of total employment in renewable energy activities. Employment in solar energy peaked at 14,350 in 2011-12."