Environmental

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Direct Action Plan, the policy mechanism proposed to replace the coal-rich country’s now-defunct carbon trading program, cleared the Senate despite staunch

In recent years several EPRI projects have explored different aspects of heat rate improvements. This article, following Part 1 in the November 2014 issue of POWER , reviews results of implementing heat rate

Closure and remediation solutions for coal ash ponds, or impoundments, vary greatly. Assuming the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgates the expected proposed Subtitle D regulations, technical

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday proposed to revise the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone to a range of 65 to 70 parts per billion (ppb) and sought comments on a level as strict as 60 ppb. The proposed level applies to primary (health-based) and secondary (welfare-based) ozone standards, but […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) have been seen by many in the coal-fired power industry as potentially more expensive and onerous than its Clean Power Plan, which addresses greenhouse gases. On Nov. 25, the Supreme Court agreed to review a consolidated case that could potentially prevent the MATS […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday finalized changes to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), applying to periods of startup and shutdown at new and existing coal- and oil-fired power plants nationwide.  As published in the Federal Register on Nov. 19, the final action on the EPA’s reconsideration of the startup and shutdown […]

China on Wednesday issued a key energy strategy that sets obligatory 2020 targets for renewables and nuclear power use and urges increased natural gas consumption—but which also caps coal consumption.  The State Council’s Energy Development Strategy Action Plan covers the period between 2014 and 2020. It caps annual energy primary consumption at 4.8 billion metric […]

The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan could result in the retirement of between 3.3 GW and 8.7 GW of coal-fired capacity in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid and jeopardize electric reliability for the state that is already power strapped, the independent system operator (ISO) says in a new analysis.  The Environmental Protection Agency’s […]

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) informed the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Nov. 10 that it intends to bring suit under the Clean Water Act to stop the release of coal ash pollutants it says are leaking from the TVA’s Gallatin coal ash ponds into the Cumberland River. Gallatin Fossil Plant is a four-unit […]

Events over the past year—turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East and the Russian-Ukraine gas crisis—along with uncertainty for nuclear power and pervading energy poverty worldwide show that the energy system is “under stress,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its freshly released World Energy Outlook 2014 (WEO-2014). Despite technology and efficiency improvements, without actions […]