Blog

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2013 – Within minutes of the White House announcement that Ron Binz was its choice to become chairman of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June, I got an email from a D.C. public relations firm, VennSquared, lauding Binz and larded with pre-cooked quotes from industry executives and others […]

What do editors and energy industry cybersecurity experts have in common? They both recognize the importance of language. Specifically, presenters and participants in workshops at the EnergySec Summit in Denver this week provided guidance and asked questions about terms, definitions, and interpretations of everything from generic concepts (“What is a framework?”) to specific words used […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., September 9, 2013 – As continuing revelations of lying and incompetence at Tokyo Electric Power Co. have piled up in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns of early 2011, an inescapable question arises: Can Japan’s largest utility survive. The educated guess here is that Tokyo Electric Power Co. is […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., 29 August 2013 – The surprise decision by Entergy Corp. to shut down its 620-MW Vermont Yankee single-unit nuclear plant at the end of its current operating cycle (late next year) is further evidence of how difficult it has become to make money with merchant nuclear plants. The decision, which […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., August 19, 2013 — What will it take to finally debunk the idea that the U.S. is experiencing extreme weather events driven by man-made global warming? This notion is widespread — indeed, almost ubiquitous. President Obama referenced it in his summertime speech on climate policy. Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., August 17, 2013 — How fortunate that the U.S. does not have and has never had an energy policy. Policy, particularly big policy aimed at big issues and big events, is an enemy of progress, as policy seeks to forestall opportunities that are counter to policy. Social and government policy […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., August 16, 2013 – Will this week’s D.C. Circuit Court decision put Yucca Mountain on a final path toward becoming the nation’s dump for spent nuclear fuel? Unlikely. Here’s why, in two words: Harry Reid. The tenacious Senate majority leader from Nevada (yes, that’s right, Nevada, where Yucca Mountain is […]

By Kennedy Maize A divided federal appeals court today ordered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume action on licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada. in a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said inaction by the commission at the direction of the Obama administration early in […]

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 […]

By Gail Reitenbach Santa Fe, N.M., June 26, 2013 — If you’re looking for an example of just how complex—and critical—the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change can be, look west. Those involved in the power generation industry are understandably focused on a single element of President […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., June 25, 2013 – In many ways, what is not in the plan that President Obama rolled out at his (not open to the public) speech at Georgetown University today is as interesting as what is in it. Many have noted the absence of references to the pending decision on […]

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 […]

By Robynn Andracsek, P.E., Burns & McDonnell Most power plant emission control efforts have focused on mercury, NOx and SO2 emissions, but in recent years PM2.5 has risen in importance for Clean Air Act compliance. PM2.5 is a complex and not well understood pollutant, even though it was first regulated via a National Ambient Air […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., April 29, 2013 – Last week, a bipartisan group of Senators, all of them mired in a failed paradigm, proposed a solution to the nation’s long-festering problem of what to do with what comes out of the back end of nuclear power plants. It’s nasty stuff, that’s for sure. But […]

By David Wagman Denver, April 25, 2013 — Southern Company said the 582-MW Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle power plant under construction for its Mississippi Power utility will cost as much as $333 million more than the $2.88-billion cost cap state regulators are allowing for the project. The company said during an April 24 […]

By David Wagman Denver, April 23, 2013 — Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) is expected to release this July regulations for restarting the nation’s fleet of nuclear generating stations. Much of that capacity shut down following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. Those nuclear closures threw domestic Japanese and global energy markets into turmoil as […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., April 17, 2013 – One of my oldest friends in the energy business is Jerry Halvorsen, now semi-retired and spending as much time as he can fishing in Wisconsin. But Jerry, who lobbied for nuclear, coal, and gas pipeline interests during his long career (and was a Democrat among a […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., April 15, 2013 – This is pure speculation. I’m not channeling unnamed sources, but solely working from what my gut tells me about why the White House is once again putting off Environmental Protection Agency rules on carbon dioxide emissions for new electric generating plants. Those rules, which would have […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., April 10, 2013 — The latest public relations tactic from anti-global warming activists is to flood media accounts of developments in climate science and policy with comments. Somehow the idea has circulated that it benefits their cause for the folks who want strong, quick government action to curb energy use […]

By Thomas Overton San Diego, April 3, 2013 — Despite all the sound and fury surrounding potential U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), industry observers have consistently suggested the market is unlikely to support more than three to four operating terminals. In the race to nab one of those coveted spots, Dominion’s Cove Point […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., March 29, 2013 – I thought it was a joke, maybe an April Fools’ Day gag, or something from the Onion. An email landed in my inbox yesterday from a friend, asking if I’d seen that A123 Systems, the bankrupt battery maker and supplier to Fisker Automotive, the running on […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., March 27, 2013 – Poor Ernie Moniz. The MIT academician and energy policy wonk — President Obama’s choice to be the next Secretary of Energy (there’s a career black spot for you) — is facing an onslaught from folks who think that trying to be an honest broker about energy […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., March 10, 2013 – What if Congress scheduled a hearing on global warming, then had to cancel it at the last minute because of a severe late winter snow storm? A scene from a bad Hollywood farce? No, that’s what really happened last week. And yes, you are allowed to […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., February 23, 2013 — Will Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. buy nuclear reactor vendor Westinghouse Electric Co.? That rumor was flying at the Platts nuclear conference in Washington this week. There is a certain, slightly perverse logic to such a deal. CB&I closed its $3 billion acquisition of Shaw Group […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., February 22, 2013 – How many new nuclear reactors are under construction in the world today? That seems like a straightforward question with an easy answer. Wrong. It’s a figure that defies precision. Ask Tom Nauman, a veteran of the Shaw Group, which became a part of CB&I (nee Chicago […]

By Kennedy Maize (@kennedymaize) Washington, D.C., 3 February 2013 – Steven Chu has announced his resignation as secretary of energy, so the time has come to pass preliminary judgment on his four-year term in the Obama administration. I use the term “preliminary” consciously, because journalism is only the first draft of history, and more reflective […]

By Kennedy Maize Washington, D.C., 19 January 2013 — This is a story without much significance beyond the usual cautionary tale about bureaucracies, which hardly needs retelling. But it is amusing nonetheless. So I present for your amusement and edification, the tale of the vanishing nuclear plants. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which watches over […]

By Kennedy Maize (@kennedymaize) Washington, D.C., 2 January 2013 – It came as no surprise when, shortly after Christmas, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson said she will step down sometime this month. Jackson, a controversial and hard-charging but politically adept EPA chief, will return to her New Jersey home, where she may run for […]

By Kennedy Maize (@kennedymaize) Washington, D.C., 15 Dec. 2012 – Pushed by the pending fiscal cliff and the expiration of 20 years of piecemeal tax subsidies, the U.S. wind industry is proposing a phase out of the production tax credit that has helped wind power to boom in the past few years. The proposal by […]