Obama pushes for solar and efficiency

OBAMA’S CLEAN ENERGY SPEECH:
• In setting the stage for a new rooftop solar, efficiency and other initiatives, President Obama Monday accused critics of his energy policies of trying to restrict consumers from accessing renewable sources of energy. (The Washington Post)
• The federal energy and housing agencies are rolling out a new home energy efficiency scoring program called ​“Home Energy Score.” (Climate Central)
• Some barriers to popularizing the property-assessed clean energy (PACE) program across the U.S. would be cleared under an initiative unveiled Monday by President Obama. (Greentech Media)
• Certain initiatives announced by President Obama Monday are designed specifically to help states comply with the Clean Power Plan. (The Hill)

CLEAN POWER PLAN: Arkansas officials say they are ready for steps needed to comply with the plan to achieve a ​“balanced energy future.” (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

UTILITIES:
• Atlanta-based Southern Co. reached an agreement to buy neighboring AGL Resources for about $12 billion aimed largely at boosting its natural gas investments. (Utility Dive)
• In its proposed acquisition of AGL Resources, Southern Co. is loading up on cheap debt to buy growth. (The Wall Street Journal)

ADVOCACY: Large-scale solar and wind projects have created unexpected and unsettling fault lines within the American environmental movement. (Yale Environment 360 blog)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Atlanta says it will deploy 50 battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles by the end of 2015. (NGT News)

SOLAR: Coral Gables, Florida opposes lifting restrictions on solar panels. (Daily Business Review)

NUCLEAR: Cost overruns at nuclear plant expansions in Georgia and South Carolina ​“will likely keep a cap on U.S. nuclear development.” (SNL)

COAL: The Kemper ​“clean coal” project in Mississippi shows the costly perils of being ​“first of its kind.” (EnergyWire)

GRID: Utility customers in Virginia may pay more to avoid power failures three years from now following the PJM Interconnection’s capacity auction. (EnergyWire)

COMMENTARY:
• Southwest Virginians, as with all of the residents of the Central Appalachians, still are pawns of players outside of the region. (Washington Post blog)
• Who is looking out for customers of Dominion Virginia Power whose base rates are too high? (The Virginian-Pilot)
• Lakeland, Florida has reached a midway point in its push to augment its energy production with solar energy. (The Ledger)