The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is announcing more than a dozen listening sessions and a 2-month comment period on the federal Clean Power Plan to hear from Pennsylvanians about the plan to cut carbon pollution. Fourteen listening sessions in locations across the state will take place between September and November.

The House Consumer Affairs Committee heard from advocates of a bill that would prevent the PUC from implementing caps on reimbursement to farmers, businesses and homeowners who generate electricity from alternative sources during a hearing last week.

As part of a last minute addition to Act 155, passed last October, that reauthorizes a 2004 consumer protection law; the PUC will now begin charging suppliers of electricity and natural gas as part of their annual assessments.

A month after Chris Christie announced he opposes President Obama’s new Clean Energy Plan his top environmental regulator has officially given the EPA New Jersey’s stance on this plan.

A coalition of environmental, farm, manufacturers, business and public health groups are calling on the Ohio legislature to reinstate the state’s renewable energy and energy efficiency mandates controversially put on hold last year.

Environment America, a Washington D.C. based company, recently released a ranking of total solar power capacity per person for each state.

A coalition of New York business organizations, labor unions, independent energy experts, and community and environmental leaders is concerned about the cost of implementing these ambitious programs and has called for transparency and disclosure. They said New Yorkers are already struggling with highly taxed electric bills and they’re worried that the state is moving too quickly, which could result in higher costs that are going to affect consumers’ bills.

A federal appeals court declined requests Wednesday to block the Obama administration’s landmark climate rule for power plants.

The U. S. House Science Committee is holding a hearing today on EPA’s carbon rule for power plants released last month. The hearing is focused on state perspectives on the rule, in particular power plant shutdowns.

The Subcommittee on Energy and Power, chaired by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY), voted to move forward Rep. Joe Barton’s legislation H.R. 702, that will lift the nearly 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports by a voice vote.