A new order issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last week gives 31 U.S. reactors a year to further improve their venting systems as a safeguard during potential accidents. Over the past week, the NRC also called for comment on foreign public ownership issues and issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Watts Bar 2 operating license.

A report recently released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) identifies policy goals—and their fundamental differences—identified in the 2012 presidential election and as highlighted in recent energy-related legislation. Among the nation’s energy priorities are to stabilize oil and gas markets, create natural gas pipeline infrastructure, dispose of nuclear radioactive waste, and replace conventional energy resources with renewables.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., June 10, 2013 – Working on a book involving, among lots of other stuff, electric vehicles, I’ve been spending a lot of time researching star-crossed Fisker Automotive. In the process, I’ve looked at a lot of images of the company’s iconic Karma sedan, designed by Henrik Fisker. It’s a stunning […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., June 7, 2013 – It comes as no surprise that Southern California Edison this morning announced it would permanently shut both of its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station nuclear reactors, a total of 2,350 MW of base load generating capacity. The signs of inevitable shutdown have been evident at least […]

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will on July 31 put up for auction 164,750 acres offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts for commercial wind energy leasing. The auction will be the first ever competitive lease sale for renewable energy on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and it marks "the true beginning of an offshore wind market" in the U.S., experts said.

A 660-MW underground and underwater transmission project linking Ridgefield, N.J., and Manhattan in New York City began operations on Monday.

A much greater coal power burn is expected this summer in reaction to an anticipated rebound in natural gas prices, suggests a recent reliability assessment from staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Among other key aspects of the new report is that while electric reliability for the rest of the nation will be adequate, Texas could see a significant chance of an energy emergency.

One of the first concrete-composite floating platform wind turbines in the U.S. was last week deployed off the coast of Castine, Maine. The project’s launch, led by the University of Maine (UMaine), is a milestone for a nation whose 4,000 GW of offshore wind energy potential lies in deep water—but has no grid-connected commercial offshore wind farms yet.

A new version of coal ash legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday sets minimum federal standards for coal residuals from coal-fired power plants, but it gives states—not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—responsibility for crafting their own permit programs.

Starting development work on a new nuclear plant in Iowa is "premature," given the uncertainty of carbon regulation and extensive regulatory review for new nuclear reactor designs, Des Moines–based MidAmerican Energy Co. said on Tuesday after it completed its nuclear feasibility study.