Blog

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 […]