General

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 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 […]