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Coal
FirstEnergy to Shutter 2 GW of More Coal Capacity on MATS Cost Concerns
FirstEnergy Corp. plans to shutter two coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania this fall—a total capacity of 2,080 MW—citing high costs of compliance with current and future environmental rules and a "continued low market price for electricity."
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Business
Power Conservation to Preserve Reliability Urged in Ontario, N.Y., Calif.
Soaring power demand in New York, California, and Ontario over the past week forced grid authorities to institute conservation measures.
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Coal
Hawaii Power Companies to Deactivate Oil Plants, Ramp Up Renewables
Three Hawaiian power companies plan to deactivate a total of 226 MW of oil-fired generating units, convert remaining baseload plants to cycling duty, and substantially ramp up use of renewables by 2016.
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Nuclear
Competition for SMR DOE Funding Heats Up
Three companies vying for a $452 million cost-sharing funding opportunity through the Energy Department to help commercialize their small modular reactor (SMR) designs made major announcements over the past weeks.
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Nuclear
Remembering Masao Yoshida, Nuclear Engineer, Fukushima Plant Chief
Masao Yoshida, a nuclear engineer who served as plant chief during the March 11, 2011, catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, died on Tuesday from esophageal cancer. He was 58.
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Legal & Regulatory
CBO Scopes Out Pros and Cons of a Carbon Tax
A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office confirms that a carbon tax would mean substantial revenues for the government. But the impacts would be many, varied—and unequal.
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Legal & Regulatory
Turmoil, Confusion Continues at the National Labor Relations Board
The legal turmoil surrounding the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) continues as a federal appeals court has struck down another pro-labor ruling by the board, while challenging its authority to act at all. At the same time, in a directly related matter, the membership of the board and whether it has a legal quorum continues, with Congress getting into the act.
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Finance
Master Limited Partnerships: Useful Tool or Green Finance Gimmick?
A legal tax avoidance tool for small investors in the oil and gas industry is getting a lot of buzz among renewable energy financial gurus and advocates. But are “master limited partnerships” a path to new piles of money for green energy, or just a passing fancy? And should MLPs replace the current panoply of lucrative tax gimmicks available for renewables, or be available on top of such items as the production tax credit, investment tax credits, accelerated depreciation, and state and local renewable energy mandates?
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Business
What Are (Our) Words Worth?
The wrong words at the wrong time can cost a lot of money. But creative uses for the right words can create value in unexpected places.
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Legal & Regulatory
Management Views: Phil Sharp
MANAGING POWER talks to energy veteran and president of Resources for the Future Phil Sharp about the complexities of energy policy.
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Commentary
Time to Pull the Plug on MOX
Despite good intentions, the program to turn Cold War-era plutonium into mixed-oxide reactor fuel has been an expensive failure. It’s time to consider other options.
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Commentary
Risk and Feedback in Leading People
Tempting as it may be to put off tough conversations with subordinates, doing so almost always leads to bigger and bigger problems down the line.
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Commentary
How the Wind Production Tax Credit is Anti-Nuclear
The PTC has led to unprecedented growth in wind capacity. But the distortions it creates in the energy market are damaging future prospects for nuclear power.
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Legal & Regulatory
TREND: State Renewable Mandates Survive Attacks
Despite a broad-based assault across the country, state renewable portfolio standards have survived this round, with a few seeing expansion.
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General
The Nominations Are Open: What is the Worst Government Energy Website?
By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., July 3, 2013 – As a daily reporter for and an editor of energy publications, online and offline, I deal with a lot of industry and government websites. The typical bell curve applies in my experience. Some are really quite good. Some stink. Most are somewhere in the middle. But […]
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Reversing the Drop in Combined Heat and Power Use
The benefits of combined heat and power haven’t been enough help it to keep pace with other generation resources. That’s why a new regulatory approach is needed.
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Nuclear
Is Cheap Gas Killing Nuclear Power?
Cheap natural gas is being blamed for many of the nuclear industry’s current predicaments. But is gas truly the culprit?
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Business
Picking the Right Technology in an RPS Market
The complexities of operating under a broad renewable portfolio standard require careful analysis of the options when planning a new power plant. Here’s how one generator in California navigated the sea of conflicting priorities when it was time to upgrade.
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O&M
Cost Benefits of a Cycling Analysis on a Combined Cycle Unit
Cycling is a fact of life for most gas plants. But do you really understand the true costs of cycling operation? Not having a full picture risks leaving substantial money on the table.
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News
Everett LNG Terminal at the Crossroads
Don’t talk to New England about exporting natural gas. Without the Everett Marine Terminal, the region’s gas supply crunch would be a whole lot worse.
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Business
NERC Says Gas Availability Should Be Part of Reliability Assessments
Sounding the call for new perspective, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. says it’s past time to formally consider gas availability and gas supply constraints when assessing the reliability of the bulk power system.
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Business
Natural Gas and Renewables Are Allies, Not Adversaries, Says Report
Though often cast as rivals for the same slice of the generation pie, gas and renewables, according to a new study of the ERCOT market, are natural allies for the long term.