Legal & Regulatory

A new analysis from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the nation’s second-largest ISO, predicted that compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan (CPP) could slash coal’s share of its generation from 59% in 2014 to potentially as low as 26% by 2030. The report came ahead of MISO’s planning advisory committee […]

With plans already approved for the closure of 12 of its coal ash basins, Duke Energy on June 23 recommended the full excavation of 12 additional basins located in North Carolina. The company proposed excavating five basins each at its Cape Fear Plant in Moncure and its H.F. Lee Plant in Goldsboro. Additionally, it recommended […]

As Congress works through its array of annual appropriations bills, Republicans opposed to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) are moving forward with a variety of riders, amendments, and other bills that would stop the plan in its tracks, at least until the federal court system passes final judgment on its […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) first-ever national standards for the disposal of coal ash are ridden with complications, warned witnesses at a Senate oversight hearing.  The June 17 hearing before the full Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) featured five witnesses representing a coalition of state environmental agency leaders, the American Coal Ash Association, […]

Southern Co. announced on June 16 that construction has been completed on a new FLEX dome—a structure built to house emergency equipment needed to respond to an extreme external event—at its Vogtle nuclear plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requiring U.S. nuclear plants to build protected structures like the FLEX dome in response to […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed ozone rule came under scrutiny in two U.S. House of Representatives hearings held during the past week.  The House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on energy and power on June 12 heard testimony on the rule from Janet McCabe, the EPA’s acting assistant administrator for the Office of […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 4 released a draft assessment of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on the nation’s water supplies, concluding that there was no evidence of widespread impacts but conceding that data on the subject is limited. The assessment, conducted at the request of Congress, follows water used for […]

The D.C. Circuit rejected challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon rules for existing power plants, ruling that it has no authority to review rules that aren’t yet final.  “Petitioners are champing at the bit to challenge EPA’s anticipated rule restricting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. But EPA has not yet […]

Germany’s tax on nuclear fuel rods is not against European Union (EU) law, the bloc’s top court has ruled. The decision from the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union on June 4 may be detrimental to utilities that own nuclear power plants, which have already paid about $5.67 billion in the levies that […]

In contrast to the bitter partisanship that has paralyzed Congress for the past few years—especially with respect to energy policy—the Obama administration’s first Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) received a mostly warm welcome from House GOP members, who echoed its concerns with the state of the nation’s energy infrastructure during a hearing on June 2. “Many […]