American Electric Power (AEP) has opted to retire—instead of refueling with natural gas—its 585-MW coal-fired Muskingum River Plant Unit 5 in Beverly, Ohio, in 2015.

Gina McCarthy moved closer to a Senate confirmation as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator after Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) confirmed he wouldn’t further block a long-delayed vote on her nomination.

Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in the Manomet section of Plymouth on Cape Cod Bay, Mass., was on Tuesday forced to reduce power to 85% after its salt service water inlet temperature exceeded technical specifications.

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld an earlier district court decision that Clean Air Act liabilities do not transfer to new owners when a facility is sold, while the Third Circuit upheld an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule to limit sulfur dioxide emissions from a Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant on request of New Jersey, a downwind state.

A bipartisan Senate bill introduced on June 27 seeks to break gridlock over a permanent nuclear waste repository by establishing a new nuclear waste administration and creating a consent-based process for siting nuclear waste facilities.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said on June 27 that President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate Ronald Binz as FERC commissioner. It had been widely anticipated that Binz would be named the new chair of the regulatory body.

In remarks on July 2 at Symbion Power Plant in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, President Obama elaborated on his new “Power Africa” initiative, which aims to increase electricity availability in Africa, where nearly 70% of the population lacks access to electricity.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a Clean Air Act settlement with Utah-based Deseret Generation & Transmission Co-operative (Deseret) resolving alleged violations at the coal-fired Bonanza Power Plant.