So, Who In Kentucky Is Pushing Renewables? Wal-Mart, Toyota, GM, L'Oreal . . .
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Kentucky, unlike many other states, has no mandate to require a certain share of renewable energy. The state joined two dozen others in a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama's signature climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, which would have shuttered hundreds of coal-fired power plants. Snavely says coal built his state's economy, creating some of the cheapest power in the country. "We have industries in Kentucky that would not be here if we didn't have such low electricity rates," he says.
President Trump's order to start dismantling the climate regulation was a victory for Kentucky. And yet, it may not do much to stop the steady decline of coal. "The future is renewables and the large corporations that want renewables," says Jim Gardner, who used to regulate power companies as a member of Kentucky's Public Service Commission.
Two years ago, Gardner was struck by an encounter with a local man who worked remotely for Facebook. He told Gardner that big corporations were actually deciding where to expand based on where they could get renewable energy. "He made it seem like there was literally a list with a lot of states with big X's marked in," says Gardner, "so that Facebook and others were not looking because [some states] were not going to be open to renewables."
The Public Service Commission worried the state was missing out. It quietly issued an official statement — "a clear signal to people outside of the state," says Gardner — that if a big customer wanted renewable energy, Kentucky's utilities could cut a special deal to provide it. That gave utilities permission to offer renewable energy. But they still face challenges to produce it.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/17/stop-swooning-justin-trudeau-man-disaster-planet
