Sonal Patel is a national award-winning multimedia journalist and senior editor at POWER magazine with nearly two decades of experience delivering technically rigorous reporting across power generation, transmission, distribution, policy, and infrastructure worldwide.
What’s the utility of the future going to look like within two or three decades? That was a question put to former Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Great Plains CEO Mike Chesser, and former chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission Ron Binz by the head of the Brookings Institute’s Energy Security Initiative (ESI) last […]
A natural gas shortage triggered by extreme cold weather in much of the U.S. and Canada has affected supplies to power plants in drought-stricken California and forced the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) on Thursday to issue a conservation alert. CAISO said the natural gas shortage was only affecting Southern California but appealed to customers […]
Legally binding targets to slash the European Union’s (EU) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40%, increase the bloc’s renewables’ share to 30%, and improve energy efficiency by 40%—all by 2030—were strongly backed by the European Parliament on Wednesday. The EU’s directly elected parliamentary institution adopted a resolution by a vote of 341–263 to set […]
Legally binding targets to slash the European Union’s (EU) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40%, increase the bloc’s renewables’ share to 30%, and improve energy efficiency by 40%—all by 2030—were strongly backed by the European Parliament on Wednesday. The EU’s directly elected parliamentary institution adopted a resolution by a vote of 341–263 to set […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling for public comment and information on approaches to updating radiation protection standards for nuclear power operations. The standards have not been updated since they were originally issued in 1977. The agency issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Feb. 4 in the Federal Register and related fact […]
The first offshore wind project proposed in federal waters off the West Coast garnered approval from the Department of Interior (DOI) on Wednesday to submit a formal construction plan. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) gave Principle Power the green light to submit a formal plan to build a 30-MW pilot project that will […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week proposed to approve revisions to a Texas state plan to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state. If finalized, likely later this year, the EPA will rescind its Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that is currently in place and grant the state GHG permitting authority. According to the […]
Power produced by South Africa represents 40% of Africa’s total—yet that country is facing a crippling supply shortfall. Emergencies are offset with imports from its neighbors in southern Africa, some of which are electricity poor, and others that are latent supply giants. “Power Africa,” the recently announced U.S. initiative that earmarks $7 billion in public […]
Oklahoma has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lawsuit that challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) authority to reject a state regional haze plan and replace it with a federal implementation plan (FIP). Last July, in a 2–1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld the EPA’s rejection of […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must issue a proposed revision of its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle D rules regulating coal combustion residuals no later than Dec. 19, 2014, under a consent decree reached between the agency and environmental groups that was filed in federal court today. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia […]
President Obama spoke briefly about energy in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, though he declared at the outset: “The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.” That statement rejected recently expressed concerns from 18 […]
General Electric Hitachi (GE Hitachi) will pay $2.7 million under a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve allegations that the company made false statements about a non-safety component of its advanced nuclear Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor (ESBWR). The ESBWR, a 1,650-MWt reactor that uses natural circulation for normal operation and has […]
Issuance of the revised final Waste Confidence Decision and Temporary Storage Rule will be delayed until at least early October, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced on Thursday. The NRC cited “time lost” and a “lapse of appropriations” during the October 2013 government shutdown, which has forced the federal regulatory body to “reschedule several public […]
The U.S. Commerce Department will begin fresh antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of imports of certain crystalline silicon photovoltaic products from China, as well as an antidumping duty investigation of imports from Taiwan. The department announced today that the scope of the new investigations, petitioned for by SolarWorld Industries, specifically excludes products covered by existing […]
The European Union (EU) should emit 40% less carbon dioxide than it did in 1990 and produce 27% of its energy from renewables by 2030, declares a new framework on climate and energy presented by the European Commission (EC) on Wednesday. The communication setting out the 2030 framework is now expected to be debated by the […]
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new power plants violates the Energy Policy Act (EPACT) of 2005, a suit filed in federal court by the state of Nebraska alleges. The state alleges, as have a number of Republican lawmakers, that the EPA relied on […]
FutureGen 2.0, the government-backed but long-stalled carbon capture and storage (CCS) project proposed for Meredosia, Ill., will get about $1 billion in cost-shared federal funding, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Jan. 22. A Record of Decision (ROD) published in the Federal Register marks the DOE’s decision to provide $1 billion of financial assistance […]
A federal court on Wednesday upheld the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) 2012 determination that the 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, south of Cape Cod, Mass., posed “no hazard” to air navigation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision in Town of Barnstable, Mass. v. FAA […]
Witnesses from four federal agencies, including Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, answered pointed questions about the president’s June 2013–released Climate Action Plan (CAP) and associated rules at an oversight hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works today. Committee Chair Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) began the hearing to review President Obama’s […]
Three Wyoming coal-fired power plants will be required to install costly controls to curb nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions under a regional haze rule that was finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week. The agency disapproved parts of a state implementation plan (SIP) submitted by Wyoming in January 2011 to address regional haze. It […]
A years-long drought afflicting California could put financial pressure on a number of the state’s hydropower generators, a ratings agency warns. Fitch Ratings on Friday said that while the financial impact could be manageable, utilities that depend on hydropower generation for the most part may be forced to use more expensive generation and purchased power […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will today miss a legally set deadline to issue finalized standards for cooling water intake structures for all existing power generating facilities under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act. The EPA’s 2004 Phase II Cooling Water Intake Structure rules were suspended in July 2007 in response to the Second […]
An option to curb NOx emissions from the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) near Page, Ariz., put forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last October has been endorsed by a coalition of the plant’s stakeholders. The EPA’s supplemental proposal incorporates in large part a Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) alternative that was submitted by a […]
Increases in spot natural gas prices generally prompted wholesale electricity price hikes across the nation from in 2013, but power prices were the highest in the Pacific Northwest and New England, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday. Average wholesale electricity prices at the Mid-Columbia trading hub were $37.53/MWh—soaring 64% in 2013 compared to […]