
CEO of REI Nominated as Secretary of the Interior

As Ken Salazar retires from his position as Secretary of the Interior, President Obama nominated REI's CEO Sally Jewell to take his place Wednesday—a move backed by both conservation groups and Big Oil.
As the president and CEO of REI, Jewell is also on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association and formerly served as a petroleum engineer at Mobil. Her position on the board oversees energy and mining operations on millions of acres of public lands, according to the Associated Press.
While environmentalists tout her ability to protect America's natural resources and national lands, the oil and gas industry is also supportive of Obama's bi-partisan appealing choice.
"Her experience as a petroleum engineer and business leader will bring a unique perspective to an office that is key to our nation's energy portfolio,” Tim Wigley, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said in a statement.
In an introduction at the White House, Obama said that Jewell “has spent the majority of her career outside of Washington, where, I might add, the majority of our interior is located.”
“She knows the link between conservation and good jobs,” Obama added. “She knows that there’s no contradiction between being good stewards of the land and our economic progress; that, in fact, those two things need to go hand in hand.”
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Hydrostor receives $4m funding for A-CAES facility in Canada

Hydrostor has received $4m funding to develop a 300-500MW Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) facility in Canada.
The funding will be used to complete essential engineering and planning, and enable Hydrostor to plan construction.
The project will be modeled on Hydrostor’s commercially operating Goderich storage facility, providing up to 12 hours of energy storage.
The project has support from Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Innovation Program and Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
Hydrostor’s A-CAES system supports Canada’s green economic transition by designing, building, and operating emissions-free energy storage facilities, and employing people, suppliers, and technologies from the oil and gas sector.
The Honorable Seamus O’Regan, Jr. Minister of Natural Resources, said: “Investing in clean technology will lower emissions and increase our competitiveness. This is how we get to net zero by 2050.”
A-CAES has the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions by enabling the transition to a cleaner and more flexible electricity grid. Specifically, the low-impact and cost-effective technology will reduce the use of fossil fuels and will provide reliable and bankable energy storage solutions for utilities and regulators, while integrating renewable energy for sustainable growth.
Curtis VanWalleghem, Hydrostor’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are grateful for the federal government’s support of our long duration energy storage solution that is critical to enabling the clean energy transition. This made-in-Canada solution, with the support of NRCan and Sustainable Development Technology Canada, is ready to be widely deployed within Canada and globally to lower electricity rates and decarbonize the electricity sector."
The Rosamond A-CAES 500MW Project is under advanced development and targeting a 2024 launch. It is designed to turn California’s growing solar and wind resources into on-demand peak capacity while allowing for closure of fossil fuel generating stations.
Hydrostor closed US$37 million (C$49 million) in growth financing in September 2019.
