By Joe Salimando – www.eleblog.com
John Colson, chairman & CEO of Quanta Services – on utility work:
“Because they [electric utilities] haven’t been doing maintenance for a few years, we will see longer outages and we will see more frequent outages as storm season approaches. It’s a frequent, very frequent occurrence that cities are affected by storms that shouldn’t really affect their distribution systems, and they are devastated and they are out of electricity for days and days.”
See more in Bloomberg posting 1/21.
Note: Quanta Services is a member of NECA. Colson has served on NECA’s executive committee.
Roy Lamb, training director, Lincoln, Neb. JATC – on wind power:
“The amount of work that this potentially could create – millions of manhours, billions of dollars of work. And so it’s exciting times.”
See the recently posted ElectricTV video segment on the Nebraska wind training facility.
From Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy – on solid-state lighting:
“The United States must lead in energy efficiency. These solid-state lighting projects will help us significantly cut our energy use, reduce our carbon footprint, and save money. This funding will also support the United States as a global leader in this rapidly evolving industry, creating high-tech, value-added jobs.”
See release announcing $37 million for Next Generation Lighting.
Edwin D. Hill, International President of the IBEW – on fostering job creation in Florida:
“The Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) has placed a $1.2 billion rate increase request before the Public Service Commission. . . . make no mistake — rejecting this increase would mean losing a golden opportunity to create jobs, promote consumer savings and strengthen Florida’s economic future.
“The rate increase would provide FPL the immediate funds needed to make renovations and modernizations throughout its system to provide Floridians with the power they need. More important, this amount would give the utility access to the capital market so that it could prudently fund as much as $16 billion in improvements and upgrades over five years.”
See Hill’s op-ed in the Jan. 6 Tallassee Democrat
Note: The Florida PSC’s decision disappointed FPL – which, on 1/13, suspended $10 billion of investment over the next five years. See FPL release.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California – on the state’s new Green code:
“Today’s action lays the foundation for the move to greener buildings constructed with environmentally advanced building practices that decrease waste, reduce energy use and conserve resources. The code will help us meet our goals of curbing global warming and achieving 33% renewable energy by 2020 and promotes the development of more sustainable communities by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy efficiency in every new home, office building or public structure.”
– remarks on the mandatory California Green Building Standards Code (goes into effect 1/1/11). See Eco-Structure magazine’s report.