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.