On June 20 The Week of Sustainable Energy 2012 will host an interview with European diplomat Sven Giegold. The Twitterview, as interviews via Twitter are colloquially known as, will occur between 4:30 and 5:30 PM.

The European Commission, The Executive Agency for Competition and Innovation, and the partners of the “Sustainable Energy for Europe” campaign will support the initiative. The Twitterview is a great opportunity to ask all of those questions about energy and sustainability that anyone could have and to read the responses in less than 140 characters, something that seems like it would be difficult for the eloquent European diplomat.

Sven Giegold was a prominent member of the TEDxChange conference in Berlin that was about the changes Germany has done regarding sustainability in the last thirty years. Ultimately, Germany has been an inspiring message with the essence of change that will certainly be revisited in this Twitterview during The European Week of Sustainable Energy 2012.

Sven Giegold was born November 17, 1969 in Las Palmas. He studied Political and Economic Sciences in Luxembourg. He received his MA in Political Economics and Economic Development from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

He has collaborated on the creation of the Ecological Center in Verden, with forty work positions in ecological business and social finances. He is the co-founder of ATTAC Deutschland and the representative of the BUND Federation in the Coordination Circle and the Council of ATTAC. He is also the co-founder of International Network for Fiscal Justice. He has worked on the creation of the European Coordinator of ATTAC. He has also been a member of the European Parliament since 2009 and Coordinator of the Verts/ALE Group in the Commission of Economic and Monetary Issues.

He is an exceptionally busy man as he is a presenter of papers and author of interventions in all forms of communication about themes as critical as globalization, ecology, and fiscal politics and policies since 2001.

European Week of Sustainable Energy 2012

One of the most important events in the world of energy is just around the corner. From June 18 to June 22 2012 the world will celebrate the sixth edition of Europe’s week of Sustainable Energy. The objectives are clear: demonstrate, promote, analyze and celebrate efficient and renewable energy.

Since the first year of the week in 2006 until now there has been a huge leap regarding the events and participants. The first year there was only one event in Brussels, but 2010 saw more than three hundred events and more than 30,000 participants. Participants and companies endorsed good developments in ecology, social, and economics. In 2012 there will be even more with at least one thousand events.

The article Sustainable Energy Week Has Twitterview with Sven Giegold appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A new study estimates that in 10 years, Kentucky could create over 28,000 jobs while lessening the growth of electricity bills by passing clean energy legislation currently in front of the General Assembly. Synapse Energy Economics produced the study, which is an analysis of the Clean Energy Opportunity Act introduced by Representative Mary Lou Marzian.

“This study confirms that legislation to diversify our electricity portfolio would be economically beneficial to Kentucky,” said Justin Maxson, President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development.

“The bill would allow the state to hedge against increasing rates by making homes and businesses more energy efficient. And it would spur the creation of clean energy jobs, installing renewable energy projects and making energy efficiency upgrades.”

“The era of cheap energy is coming to an end,” said Maxson, “and it is really a question of whether we, in Kentucky, take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the clean energy economy of the future.”

The Clean Energy Opportunity Act calls for the establishment of a renewable and efficiency portfolio standard (REPS). An REPS requires utilities to obtain a small, but growing, share of their electricity from clean renewable energy and increase their energy efficiency programs. The bill would require utilities to get 12.5 percent of their electricity from renewable energy and achieve 10.25 percent cumulative savings from energy efficiency efforts by 2022.

Synapse’s study is a high level analysis of the proposed legislation’s impacts on Kentucky’s electricity bills, jobs, and economy. The study concludes that making small, but significant, steps to begin diversifying Kentucky’s portfolio over the next ten years will lower the bills of Kentucky’s residents, business owners, and industrial facilities compared to their bills without a clean energy standard.

Synapse projects that, under the REPS, average annual electricity bills could be eight to ten percent lower than under a do-nothing scenario. In addition to saving Kentuckians money, the REPS would lead to over 28,000 net new jobs over and above any jobs lost in fossil fuels and add $1.5 billion to gross state product once fully implemented in 2022.

“Efficiency and renewables are already the emerging trend in construction in the Commonwealth,” said Kentucky solar entrepreneur, Matt Partymiller, of Solar Energy Solutions in Lexington. “This report by Synapse captures what Kentucky engineers and contractors already know and what other states have already seen.

Legislation like the Clean Energy Opportunity Act will provide the tools necessary for Kentucky builders to create jobs while ensuring Kentucky energy costs stay low.”

The study’s findings are supported by what neighboring states that have passed similar legislation have experienced. North Carolina has seen tremendous growth in the number of clean energy firms operating in their state since passing an REPS in 2007. Ohio built on the strengths of its traditional manufacturing sector to start building clean energy equipment in state, and reap real economic benefits from their 2008 law.

Synapse carried out the study for the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, a Berea-based economic development organization, and the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance, a coalition of over 50 businesses, affordable housing advocates, non-profit organizations and faith-based groups.

MACED and KySEA wanted to understand the economic impacts of an REPS in Kentucky, and a comprehensive analysis of a bill like the Clean Energy Opportunity Act has not been part of the policy conversation until now.

The article Kentucky: Clean Energy Legislation Can Create Jobs and Save on Electric Bills appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.