By Kennedy Maize Princeton physicist Will Happer, a prominent skeptic about man-made global warming, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Feb. 25 that the earth is in a “CO2 famine,” and more atmospheric carbon dioxide would be a very good thing indeed. “Almost never have CO2 levels been as low” as in the […]

A year after a U.S. appeals court vacated a Clean Air Act Rule that would have allowed a cap-and-trade approach for mercury emitted by power plants, the nation’s highest court on Monday declined to hear arguments on the case.

A federal court on Tuesday sided with 13 states that had challenged the U.S. Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) annual air quality standard for microscopic pollutants known as particulate matter or soot, ruling that the government’s standards were “unsupported” by “reasoned decision-making.”

A federal appeals court last week slapped the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on the hand for overreaching the authority granted to the agency by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 when it took an “expansive interpretation” of the law in asserting its power to override state decisions.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week announced a sweeping reorganization of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) dispersal of direct loans, loan guarantees, and funding contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

If the Obama administration regulates carbon dioxide, future costs to contain or abate emissions at the 600-MW John W. Turk Jr. Power Plant proposed for southwest Arkansas by the Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) could exceed $163 million a year—or more than $2.8 billion for the 40-year life of the plant—says an economic study prepared for two environmental groups.

The U.S. government has sued Louisiana Generating, alleging that the NRG Energy subsidiary violated the clean air rules by operating the Big Cajun 2 Power Plant without also installing and operating modern pollution control equipment after the generating units had undergone major “modifications.”

Beacon Power Corp., whose much-watched flywheel system is designed regulate grids using efficient energy storage, is teaming with American Electric Power (AEP) and Columbus Southern Power Co. to build a 1-MW regulation facility in the coming months at an AEP site in Groveport, Ohio.

This week, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reinstated construction permits for Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Bellefonte units while it rescheduled its review of a construction and operating license of a planned UniStar project. The Canadian government, meanwhile, approved the first-phase design review of an advanced CANDU reactor, and a Japanese safety commission approved the restart of a major quake-hit generating facility.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday authorized the $4.5 billion purchase by EDF Development of nearly half of Constellation Energy’s nuclear generation and operations business.

By Kennedy Maize Yucca Mountain is stretched out on its deathbed. Earlier this month, the nuclear industry effectively agreed that the plan to bury spent nuclear reactor fuel under the Nevada mountain on federal government property is ready for political last rites. At meetings with Wall Street analysts and state utility regulators in February, leaders […]

A professor and consultant who has experience and connections with just about every part of the nuclear power world concludes that the U.S. will need to add 900 nuclear reactors in the next quarter century.

It’s here—the 59th annual event to encourage students to consider engineering careers while building public understanding and appreciation of engineers’ contributions to society. Created in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Engineers Week is backed by more than 100 professional societies, major corporations, and government agencies, with the goal of ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday agreed to reconsider a memorandum issued by the Bush administration’s EPA chief that directed agency officials not to consider carbon dioxide emissions when weighing applications for new coal power plants. The decision could portend the potential reversal of that Bush policy.

The industry last week saw the postponements of several more fossil-fueled power plants. Subsidiaries of American Electric Power (AEP) reportedly delayed construction of two integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) plants in West Virginia and in Ohio, NV Energy stalled plans for a 500-MW coal-fired facility in Nevada, and Consolidated Energy put off construction of a 109-MW pet coke power plant in Utah.

Nuclear energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment can help the U.S. reduce carbon emissions and bolster energy security, a new report coauthored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Idaho National Laboratory has shown.

A new study says that a climate action plan promoted by several U.S. Western governors could prolong the economic recession, weaken already overburdened Western power grids, and deliver a temperature “benefit” of only one ten-thousandth of a degree Celsius even after a century of operation.

ITC Holdings Corp. last week said that over the past year it has worked to develop the “Green Power Express,” a network of transmission lines that would move12,000 MW of power from wind-abundant areas in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Iowa to Midwest load centers, such as Chicago, southeastern Wisconsin, Minneapolis, and other states that demand renewable energy.

By Kennedy Maize Here’s a delicious irony. In South Carolina, an iconic former Republican governor and the current Republican governor, who reportedly has presidential ambitions, are feuding over a coal-fired power plant proposed by the state government’s own electric utility. Most intriguing is that the former governor, oral surgeon Jim Edwards, 81, Ronald Reagan’s first […]

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday heard the testimony of five witnesses in its review of a draft federal renewable electricity standard that could require that 20% of the nation’s power be produced by renewable energy sources by 2021.

Sweden has proposed to lift a nearly 30-year-old ban on nuclear power and annulled its nuclear phase-out. The country said on Thursday that nuclear power would be an important source of electricity while it acts on a new sustainable energy and climate policy.

Kentucky Utilities (KU) last week agreed to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty and spend approximately $135 million on pollution controls to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Michigan’s Gov. Jennifer Granholm last week said in her state of the state address that she had directed the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to evaluate, along with the Public Service Commission (PSC), “feasible and prudent alternatives” before giving coal-fired power plants in Michigan the green light.

A decade after Texas lawmakers passed sweeping legislation to deregulate the Lone Star State’s retail electricity market, a report by a coalition of 103 municipalities and other political subdivisions shows that Texas power prices have soared well above the national average—and more than in any other deregulated state. The report also alleges serious abuses in the wholesale power market and reduced profits for businesses as a result of deregulation.

The Joint Coordinated System Plan (JCSP’08), the first step of a transmission and generation system expansion analysis of the majority of the Eastern Interconnection, estimates the electricity sector will need over $80 billion in new transmission infrastructure to obtain 20% of the region’s electricity from wind generation.

Exelon has halted construction of a 650-MW natural gas–fired power plant it planned to build to meet electricity needs in southern Pennsylvania because demand has tapered off on the back of a slow economy.

Two revolutionary mobile power stations, developed separately by companies in Russia and Germany, could soon be afloat. Russian investment management company United Industrial Corp. (Russian acronym OPK) said last week it is on track to launch the world’s first floating nuclear power station by 2010, while German power generation giant RWE could soon pilot a combined-cycle gas turbine “power barge,” deploying it at continental shores where electricity is most needed.

Talks have begun to resolve key differences between the U.S. House’s $819 billion economic stimulus plan and the $838 billion approved by the Senate this week. Among these differences are that the Senate bill includes $50 billion for loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and clean coal plants.

A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) team of regional partners has begun injecting carbon dioxide (CO₂) into coal seams in the Central Appalachian Basin to determine the feasibility of CO₂ storage in unmineable coal seams and the potential for enhanced coalbed methane recovery.

The 250-MW Highwood coal-fired power plant doggedly pursued by the Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative (SME) has not been scrapped, as has been widely reported by other media sources. It has been put on hold while the cooperative pursues a more expeditious route to meeting power demand by building a 120-MW combined-cycle natural gas–fired plant and erecting at least 6 MW of wind turbines.