Southern Co. plans to implement an advanced integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) technology developed in conjunction with the Energy Department, KBR Inc., and other partners at an Alabama federal research facility at an existing fuel oil–fired power plant in China, the company said on Thursday.

The Department of Energy last week announced the award of 11 projects worth $75.5 million to conduct site characterization of promising geologic formations for carbon dioxide storage.

Babcock International last week agreed to buy the full commercial arm of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)—a UK government body that provides nuclear decommissioning, waste management, and new nuclear build support services—for £50 million.

In a decision that experts say could have profound implications on the future of climate change litigation, a two-judge panel of a federal appeals court on Monday reversed a 2005 district court decision and ruled that eight states and New York City can sue coal-burning utilities for creating a “public nuisance” through their emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday issued a final rule that will require—for the first time—most large emitters of greenhouse gases to begin recording data under a new reporting system starting in 2010.

By Kennedy Maize A few environmental myths about electric power just won’t die. I’ll begin to discuss some of them in this blog. The first is that exposure to electrical and magnetic fields from high-voltage power lines causes cancer. This long-shot-down claim resurfaces repeatedly. It is simply wrong, and multiple scientific studies – including a […]

By Kennedy Maize This blog has nothing to do with energy or power.  It’s about music. But I suspect that there are enough readers out there who will connect with it to make the blog worthwhile. I’m writing about the death on Sept. 16 of Mary Travers, 72, the dominant force of the folk group […]

By Kennedy Maize Partisan Correctness: Does Harry Reid Speak for Harry Reid? Who’s speaking approximate truth here? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week in a press conference that he expects energy and climate legislation, which has narrowly passed the House, will get punted into next year. The reason, Reid said, is the […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Tuesday that it has completed a multi-year study of power plant wastewater discharges and concluded that current regulations—issued in 1982—have not kept pace with changes in the power industry over three decades. It now plans to revise existing standards for water discharges from coal-fired power plants. Revisions could include tightened restrictions on contaminants in wet scrubber wastewater streams.

Alstom last week pulled out of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), an industry group that advocates for the “robust” use of coal and advancement of cleaner coal technologies. The French company widely active in the development and testing of carbon capture technologies said it broke with the coalition because of its questionable support for climate legislation—the same reason Duke Energy cited when it withdrew from the ACCCE earlier in the week.

Competition for funding under the Energy Department’s Round 3 Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) heated up on Monday as Future Power PA Inc. (FPPI) announced it had applied for about $610 million for a proposed integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant with carbon sequestration in Pennsylvania.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed an executive order on Tuesday directing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt regulations by July 31, 2010, to increase California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to 33% by 2020—one of the strictest in the country.

GE-Hitachi (GEH) Nuclear Energy last week said it had submitted a final design certification document for the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The submittal allows the regulatory agency to proceed with its evaluation of the third-generation reactor design.

An innovative project that uses algae to mitigate carbon emissions from a coal-fired power plant owned by Arizona Public Service (APS) has received a $70.5 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE).

Exelon, the largest nuclear generator in the U.S., on Thursday signed a $1.2 billion contract to purchase separative work units (SWUs) from USEC’s American Centrifuge Plant to fuel its reactors starting in 2012.

Nuclenor, the operator of Spain’s oldest nuclear power plant, the 466-MW Santa Maria de Garoña, on Monday appealed a government decision to close the plant in 2013. Nuclenor said it had “solid reasons to support the continued operation of the [plant] until 2019.”

By Kennedy Maize Companies that offer health insurance plans to their employees – and that covers most power companies – need to pay close attention to the Washington debate on national health insurance plans now current in Congress. So far, most of the sound and fury over the Obama (and congressional) plans are bogus, kicked […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday proposed to throw out three aspects of the Texas clean air permitting program because they do not meet requirements of the federal Clean Air Act. Rejections could include the state’s flexible permit system, which allows power plants, factories, refineries, and other industrial plants to exceed emission limits in certain areas as long as they stay within overall limits.

Dominion Virginia Power said last week that a state air permit relating to mercury emissions for its Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center had been amended, and that the permit was now compliant with an order from the Richmond Circuit Court.

Japanese electronics company Toshiba Corp. could reportedly bid for French state-owned AREVA’s lucrative transmission and distribution (T&D) business. Toshiba, which acquired U.S. nuclear reactor maker Westinghouse Electric Co. in 2006, will likely enter a $5 billion bid, vying against a Chinese sovereign fund and other companies.

Last week saw several important developments concerning coal plants in Germany, Michigan, and Canada.

Two companies have announced setbacks to demonstration projects seeking to develop and commercialize enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technology. California-based AltaRock Energy shelved a project for which it had secured $36 million from the U.S Energy Department and had the backing of several large venture capital firms, citing “geologic anomalies.” Geodynamics Ltd., meanwhile, encountered a new set of technical difficulties and is reevaluating a 1-MW pilot project in the Australian outback.

By Kennedy Maize Look out, the political wobbles are beginning for Senate climate legislation. The wheels could come off anytime soon now. The Energy Daily reported that the Senate’s schedule for taking up climate legislation won’t begin on Sept. 8, as originally announced. Instead, said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Environment and […]

Reports from the past week allege that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson is readying to release a formal “endangerment finding” that could regulate carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles—as well as from power plants and other stationary sources. These have prompted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to urge the EPA to hold a public hearing on the evidence—or face litigation.

The federal government and the state of Illinois on Thursday filed a suit against Midwest Generation, alleging that the company violated the Clean Air Act by making “major modifications” to six coal-fired power plants without installing required pollution control equipment.

NRG Energy is the latest power generator to solicit government funding for a proposed carbon capture demonstration unit. It is also the newest member of the Energy Department’s National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC), an industry-based cleaner coal technology research center.

Delays plaguing Europe’s first EPR nuclear power plant, the Olkiluoto 3 in Finland, could cost AREVA €2.3 billion, and the French state-owned nuclear engineering firm now says that it will only complete the plant’s construction if the plant’s buyer, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), agrees to the company’s hardball proposals.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week issued an Early Site Permit (ESP) and Limited Work Authorization (LWA) to Southern Nuclear Operating Co. for its two proposed Plant Vogtle units in Waynesboro, Ga. The ESP, valid for 20 years, is the fourth issued by federal regulators—but the first based on a specific technology, the Westinghouse AP1000.

The U.S. Energy and Treasury Departments on Tuesday announced stimulus fund awards worth $502 million to energy companies to spur investments in renewable projects and provide “cash assistance” in lieu of earned federal tax credits.

The FutureGen Alliance on Tuesday said it had signed a $17.3 million cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy that covers preliminary design activities through the end of 2009, allowing for the continued development of the Illinois gasified coal power plant and carbon capture initiative.