Under the new Advanced Clean Cars Program rules, approved last month, automakers will be required, beginning in 2018, to sell an escalating number of automobiles and light vehicles in California that can run on electricity, fuel cells or other zero-tailpipe-emission technologies.

But under a deal reached by automakers, the Obama administration and 2 senior California Air Resources Board officials, manufacturers that exceed new federal fuel-efficiency standards, even slightly, will be allowed to reduce the number of zero-emission vehicles they sell by up to 50 percent in 2018, a reduction that will drop to 30 percent by 2021.

The new rules also allow carmakers that do not meet their sales goals to purchase credits from other companies that surpass the goals, like Tesla Motors, a Bay Area company that plans to sell only electric vehicles and electric vehicle components.

Residential customers may receive a rebate of $1,000 for installing new solar water heating systems, and up to $20,000 for installing a photovoltaic (PV) system and interconnecting to FPL’s grid.

Business customers may receive rebates up to $50,000 per site for installing a new solar water heating system and up to $50,000 per site for installing a PV system and interconnecting to FPL’s grid.

For more information on residential programs, please go to the FPL site with the following link: http://www.fpl.com/landing/solar_rebate/residential.shtml.

Business customers may get more information from the following link: http://www.fpl.com/landing/solar_rebate/business.shtml.

“Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is a 94-year-old U.S. Army installation with a 21st century mission… an executive order to cut energy use by 30% by 2015.  To meet this challenge, the U.S. Army partnered with Johnson Controls to upgrade buildings across its 72,500-acre testing, research and training facility.

The result? The installation is expected to reap $134 million in energy savings over the next 20 years.”

This is admirable, but it seems we are now stretching out the return to 20 years. First, savings on any program were shown for ONE year.  It has lately become fashionable to project the savings over 20 years so that the headline numbers look more impressive.  This is the first time I have seen the savings indicated over 20 years.  That makes the $134 million in savings equal to $6.7 million per year and we don’t know how much of the calculation will be in years 11-20.  I’m not saying it isn’t worthwhile or a good move in the right direction, but it does make it hard to evaluate what is really being done in the here and now.

It comes amid persistent criticism of U.S. President Barack Obama from Republican lawmakers about whether his administration is properly assessing “clean energy” companies before authorizing government support.

The Energy Department had in 2009 awarded the $118.5 million grant to Ener1′s EnerDel unit, as part of a government stimulus package to bolster the U.S. electric car industry.

For the entire story, please visit http://www.cnbc.com/id/46156363 .

His website contains a lot of excellent information about him and his views. For his views on conventional and alternative energy, please visit mittromney.com/jobs/energy .