Commentary

It is fair to say that 2011 is bringing some uncertainty into the nuclear energy industry. The tsunami and subsequent events at Fukushima present Japan and our industry with new challenges but also serve as a catalyst for continuous improvement. In the U.S., we are learning from these events and improving our operations, designs, and emergency response approaches to make our plants safer, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly.

What the summer heat wave, and one utility’s less-than-stellar response, teaches us about communicating with customers.

The rise of shale gas in U.S. energy markets has profound economic implications. It has the potential to transform the existing market and bring opportunities for new markets. But shale gas also raises regulatory challenges and the likelihood of litigation. Here’s an introduction to the issue and a primer on the regulatory and legal ramifications of the shale revolution.

Last summer, an international group of scientists and policy analysts under the auspices of the London School of Economics launched an ambitious effort to reshape the debate over global warming policy in a document known as The Hartwell Paper. This July, a similar group followed up with a new report, titled "Climate Pragmatism: Innovation, Resilience and No Regrets,"  which puts the earlier work into a North American context.

In training for a sport, the common wisdom is "no pain, no gain." The same is true when it comes to fostering creativity in the workplace. Force yourself and your organization out of the easy path, break out of the rut, and gain as a result.

The European Union has adopted a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system as part of its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Beginning January 2012, aircraft flight engines will be added to the emissions sources regulated by the ETS. A Solutions Fellow at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change believes these regulations are an important step in regulating carbon emissions. You be the judge.

Proponents of carbon dioxide emission reductions from power plants are lamenting the decision by American Electric Power to cancel the carbon capture and sequestration plant at its Mountaineer facility in West Virginia. It’s not politics, it’s just business.

With the U.S. economy still struggling, few things are as important as having an abundant, reliable supply of energy to help drive our recovery. Many American families are hurting and our businesses are being challenged to create new jobs. That’s why federal, state, and local public policies must balance the need for broader economic prosperity, […]

In a clear sign of growing industry unease about the availability of water for power plant operations, utility officials recently surveyed by Black & Veatch on a host of policy and business issues ranked water supply as their second-highest environmental concern and identified water management as the business issue that could have the greatest impact on the utility industry in the near future.

Is the term "energy independence" merely an oxymoron, or is it a national imperative? Opinions differ. Either way, the goal is practically impossible to achieve.

At the close of 2009, the U.S. geothermal industry had seen seven new geothermal power plants come online in the previous 12 months. In 2010, only one new power plant was completed.

Central banks in the past 18 months have injected a flood of money into financial markets. This liquidity in the system has allowed many marginal companies to issue bonds and avoid looming bankruptcy. Now is the time to take steps to protect yourself from the effects of a failed business relationship.

Many leaders believe that an open door policy will improve employee communications and group productivity. On the other hand, there are five reasons why a closed-door policy may have more benefits to your organization.

Have you ever made a hiring mistake? The candidate had the right credentials, experience, and the price was right. When the new employee never meets minimum expectations, what should you do?

Perhaps more than for any other industry, a nuclear accident in any part of the world affects nuclear operations elsewhere. Such an incident necessarily and inevitably results in industry self-examination, heightened regulatory oversight, and third-party scrutiny.

Someone once said that "life begins at retirement." For people, perhaps, but not for our aging inventory of coal-fired power plants that are slated for retirement during the next decade.

New research challenges the commonly held view that cap and trade legislation failed because of the spending advantages of opponents and false balance in news coverage. The report, "Climate Shift: Clear Vision for the Next Decade of Public Debate," released by American University Professor Matthew Nisbet on April 25, also shows how well funded both sides of the debate were.

When it comes to energy, the new Congress has a whole host of challenges and opportunities. But there is at least one complex challenge that has a straightforward solution. If we want a secure, reliable, and affordable energy mix, we must modernize our nation’s energy grid.

Wish you could get inside your customer’s head? If so, forget data and go to the source.

Regulators are asked to balance a societal need with the cost burden placed on those who pay for the service. Sometimes they forget that it’s other people’s money at stake.

The electric power generation landscape in both America and the rest of the world is poised to undergo a fundamental transformation in the next several decades. Global energy consumption is projected to rise dramatically by 2035, and the methods by which we generate electricity and the fuels we choose to use will begin to change as well.

It’s not just hard finding good help these days. It’s hard finding honest help, too.

The events in Japan, including the catastrophic destruction of a major nuclear power station, remind us of something we don’t like to think about: how to manage a physical disaster. But manage we must.

The recent tensions in the Middle East and their impact on oil and gasoline prices remind us that the U.S. remains heavily dependent on foreign nations—some of them unstable—to meet many of our energy needs. Of course, oil will continue to have an important place in our energy mix, and expanding our domestic reserves makes sense.

I recently outlined the top four regulatory obstacles facing existing U.S. coal-fired power plants in the coming years. That list, although not comprehensive, covered issues that owners of coal plants should be concerned about in the near term. However, in the long term, there is one regulatory development that dwarfs all others.

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard invited Jill Duggan, of the European Commission Directorate General of Climate Action and the UK government’s head of international emissions trading, to help bolster Gillard’s push for support of a carbon tax early in March. However, when interviewed on a morning show, Duggan was unable to estimate either the cost or the benefits of the UK’s program. In fact, the interview was a complete disaster.

The "Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny" Act could put the kibosh on the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulatory surge.

Prior to the crash, the renewable energy industry—including wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources—was on a roll. In 2007 and 2008, the U.S. wind power sector alone added over 13,500 MW of new projects, enough to power almost 4 million homes.

A new article in Bioscience looks again at the connection between economic growth and energy demand, shedding little light on the subject and further demonstrating the limits of neo-Malthusianism. Of course there is a relationship between energy and economic growth, but what is it? No answers here; only a doomsday prediction.

Those aren’t my words—it’s the title of a 2005 article, brought to my attention by Cal Beisner, which uses probability theory to "prove" that "…most claimed research findings are false." While the article comes from the medical research field, it is sufficiently general that some of what it discusses can be applied to global warming research as well.