NEMA Currents Blog

Cap and Trade Debate Ensures for a Hot Washington Summer

Just in case you didn't think Washington was hot enough in the summer, debate over climate change legislation (a.k.a., Waxman-Markey ) is starting to increase in volume. As a taste of things to come, Harvard Prof Greg Mankiw's recent blog post provides a virtual point-counterpoint exchange between...

Published Wed, Jun 03 2009 8:20 AM by golds

Filed under: Energy Efficiency, climate change

House Committee Seeks Ways to Modernize, Expand Grid

The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on Friday to discuss the future of the transmission grid. As noted in this blog before , obtaining federal permits can sometimes be as time-consuming as coordinating between states. Rich Halvey from the Western Governors Association noted that the...

Published Mon, Jun 15 2009 12:03 PM by Hsieh, Eric

Filed under: transmission

Batteries as a future energy source?

I was recently at a meeting hosted by at the Capital Visitors Center titled "Building a Bigger Battery." The panel presented ideas that get little attention and few people hear about. They discussed the use of batteries being energized through renewable energies to be of prominent use in the...

Published Thu, Jun 25 2009 11:31 AM by Kuhns, Garrett

Card Check and Small Business - the Remix

Back in February, I posted a blog about the impact of the misnamed "Employee Free Choice Act" (HR 1409/S 560) on America's small businesses . The blog included a link to an editorial written by Representiatve Howard "Buck" McKeon, the Ranking Republican Member on the House Education...

Published Wed, Jun 03 2009 9:00 AM by Owen, Sarah

Filed under: Card Check, Small Business, EFCA

Low Hanging Sustainability Fruit: Energy Efficiency

Energy consumption is by far the low hanging fruit on the sustainability tree. Since, according to Energy Information Administration, a whopping 65% of the energy produced by mostly non-renewable sources is lost in conversion processes, it stands to reason to look closer at these conversions and develop...

Published Thu, Jun 04 2009 11:53 AM by Moldoveanu, Andrei

Filed under: Energy Efficiency, Smart Grid, Energy Storage, High Performance Buildings

Devil in the Details...the Other "Card Check" Demon

Most of the attention on the misnamed " Employee Free Choice Act " (HR 1409/S 560) has centered on provisions which would effectively strip workers of their right to secret ballot elections in deciding whether to join unions, replacing such elections instead with a "card check" system...

Published Wed, Jun 10 2009 9:26 AM by Owen, Sarah

Filed under: Card Check, Labor Unions, EFCA

GPS and the Grid: The New Weakest Link?

By 2010, the GAO predicts that the probability of maintaining at least 24 satellites may dip below 95%, the service quality standard set by the Air Force. Due to development delays, the current constellation of GPS satellites may begin to fail before new satellites are ready for launch. Normally, this...

Published Mon, Jun 01 2009 8:15 AM by Hsieh, Eric

Filed under: Smart Grid

Yes, It's Still Out There...

To say that Washington is a busy place this summer is an understatement. Congress is still negotiating a deal to bring energy and climate change legislation to the floor. Numerous Senate and House committees are combing their way through hundreds of pages of legislation to overhaul the nation's health...

Published Wed, Jun 24 2009 9:00 AM by Owen, Sarah

Filed under: Card Check, EFCA

The Tough Times Continue

We can now clearly say that this is the manufacturing sector's deepest downturn since the dark days of the Great Depression (see the charts below for evidence). While the blood-letting will probably continue for some time, a few regional Fed surveys ( here , for example) and NEMA's very own Electroindustry...

Published Fri, Jun 19 2009 2:02 PM by Lego, Brian

Filed under: Economy

Happy High Performance Building Week!

It's High Performance Building Week! I hope you've chosen to commemorate the event appropriately. Or perhaps you've been too caught up in other important affairs -- high school graduations, summer vacations, walking the dog -- to have gotten wind of this momentous occasion. For the record...

Published Tue, Jun 16 2009 7:01 PM by golds

Filed under: Energy Efficiency

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