Compliance cost estimates for a revised ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) soon to be proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “will be little better than guesses,” the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says in a recent document.  The NAAQS does not directly impose emission controls on industry, “but it sets in motion a process […]

Decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant will cost up to $1.24 billion, owner Entergy Corp. said in a study submitted to Vermont regulators on Friday.  Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) plans to shutter the reactor in late 2014. The decision to close the plant stems from a settlement agreement negotiated by several Vermont state agencies […]

The stalled Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear waste repository will meet regulatory requirements when permanently closed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has found in a long-awaited safety evaluation report (SER).  The federal regulatory body on Oct. 16 issued Volume 3 of the five-part SER on the underground geologic nuclear waste repository proposed to be built in […]

San Antonio’s CPS Energy on Monday announced a new agreement to buy power from Summit Power’s  proposed integrated combined cycle coal gasification (IGCC) plant that will include carbon capture, utilization, and storage. The municipally owned utility will buy 200 MW of power from the the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP), which is about half the […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up industry’s challenge to a federal court ruling that upheld the Bush administration’s air quality standard for ozone.  The high court’s denial leaves intact the D.C. Circuit’s July 2013 decision upholding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) last revision of its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) […]

American Electric Power’s (AEP’s) Ohio unit has asked the state’s Public Utilities Commission for permission to essentially charge customers for costs to operate nine unregulated coal-fired units, a move the company says will address market volatility and ensure the economic viability of Ohio’s generation.  AEP Ohio on Oct. 3 proposed an “expanded” power purchase agreement […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday issued a draft solicitation that would provide up to $12.6 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear projects. The agency identified four technology areas of interest in the draft solicitation: advanced nuclear reactors, small modular reactors, upgrades and uprates at existing facilities, and front-end nuclear projects. The draft solicitation […]

Despite record low temperatures and widespread generation outages during the polar vortex, bulk power system reliability was maintained, says the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) in a newly released analysis of the extreme cold weather event that engulfed most of the nation this January.  The Jan. 6–7, 2014, weather condition that resulted in temperatures […]

The U.S. power sector has seen a number of developments on the regulatory front in recent months. Here’s where major federal rules stand today. (For a more dynamic and graphic version of this article, see http://powermag.com/long-form-stories/bw-power/ .) GHG Rules New Power Plants. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September 2013 revised a 2012 proposal to […]

Several countries and companies at the United Nations (UN) Climate Summit 2014 in New York City pledged action to address climate change by slashing carbon emissions, mobilizing funding, or putting a price on carbon.  The one-day event on Tuesday was designed to raise political momentum and spur transformative action ahead of COP 21, the December […]

Five coal ash ponds at a Dominion power plant in Virginia have discharged coal ash pollutants into waterways for decades, environmental groups allege in a notice.  The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the Potomac Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club, on Sept. 17 told Dominion and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that it will sue […]

The U.S. should ensure that Canada does not build a permanent nuclear waste repository in the Great Lakes Basin as proposed, a U.S. Senate resolution introduced last week proclaims.  The resolution introduced by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and co-sponsored by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on Sept. 18 calls […]

Though unsigned by its governor, North Carolina has enacted the nation’s first comprehensive coal ash management law.  The statute, which took effect on Sept. 20, applies to all unlined dry and wet coal ash ponds owned by public utilities, including ponds that are covered or no longer in use. Beginning Oct. 1, 2014, no new […]

Affirmative defense provisions can no longer insulate generators from monetary penalties for Clean Air Act violations that result from facility startup, shutdown, and equipment malfunction, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed.  In a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPR) published on Sept. 17 in the Federal Register, the agency proposes to revise its February […]

Power companies will retire more coal-fired generating capacity and retrofit much fewer units with environmental controls than estimated just two years ago, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals in a new report. The report released on Tuesday finds that in response to shifting market conditions and four Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules (not including the […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the public comment period for its proposed rule to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants by 45 days. Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, today told reporters in a press call that the EPA’s comment period for its Clean […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) will designate $8 million for seven microgrid projects to help cities and towns better prepare for extreme weather events and other power disruptions. The funding will help develop advanced microgrid controllers and system designs for microgrids of less than 10 MW. Each projects includes a company cost-share, ranging from 20% […]

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has approved Kyushu Electric Power’s application to make changes to its Sendai reactors, putting them a step closer to resuming operations.  The regulatory agency this July said in a 400-page draft report that Kyushu’s No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at its Sendai plant in southern Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture passed […]

Regulators from six states shared starkly different views on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon rules for existing power plants at a House hearing on Tuesday. Some state-level officials said the EPA’s overall emission targets and suggested means to achieve them are based on unworkable and unrealistic assumptions about how state and regional power […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday granted the nation’s first four Class VI underground injection permits for carbon sequestration to the federally backed FutureGen 2.0 carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) project.  The Department of Energy formally committed $1 billion to the $1.68 billion project being developed by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a coalition of coal producers, users, […]

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) under construction in Finland may not start operating until late 2018—putting the project nearly 10 years behind its initial schedule.  Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said in a statement on Sept. 1 that the AREVA-Siemens consortium building Olkiluoto 3 had updated its schedule. The schedule review, which “has been going […]

Revised national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone that are expected from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this December will likely be stricter.  Agency staff from the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards in a 597-page final policy assessment released on Aug. 29 recommend revising the standard to within a range of 60 […]

The Aug. 4–6 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit shed light on the power plights faced by sub-Saharan African countries, but it also highlighted their massive power potential and the array of solutions under consideration to resolve Africa’s energy crisis. Here are a number of key insights gleaned from discussions at the summit—the first a U.S. president has […]