News

Janet McCabe, a top air regulation official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defended the agency’s carbon rule for new power plants at a House hearing on Wednesday, even as industry witnesses countered that technology does not yet exist to meet the regulatory requirements. The EPA’s acting assistant administrator for air and radiation reiterated the […]

When California’s solar power production peaked at 4,093 MW on Mar. 8, it set a new record, supplying nearly 18% of the state’s electricity demand at the time. California is the largest producer of solar power in the nation with 5,231 MW of installed capacity. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, 2,621 MW of […]

March 11 marked the third anniversary of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the east coast of Japan. Within days of that event, with no backup power, cooling systems failed at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to meltdowns and hydrogen explosions at Units 1, 2, and 3.  But […]

U.S. energy infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to acute weather events and long-term changes in the climate, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a new report. Options to help reduce those risks include measures to improve its durability and resiliency. The Mar. 4–released report titled “Energy Infrastructure Risks and Adaption Efforts,” cites data from the National Research […]

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy underscored the agency’s collaboration with the energy sector as it develops environmental rules in her keynote address at IHS CERAweek in Houston on Thursday. While her focus was centered on the proposed New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, POWERnews asked about the status of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its annual assessment of the nation’s 100 operating commercial nuclear power plants on Mar. 6. The results—for performance through 2013—showed that 80 plants were meeting all safety and security standards, while nine more were doing well enough to warrant only slight additional oversight due to one or two items […]

Cleanup of the Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill is one step closer to completion. On Mar. 3, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced that a retaining wall surrounding a 240-acre ash containment cell was completed nearly a month ahead of schedule. Kingston was the site of the worst coal ash release in U.S. history […]

President Obama submitted his fiscal year 2015 budget proposal on Mar. 4. In it, tax subsidies for fossil fuel companies were under the knife, as was the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) piece of the pie. In the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) overview, it was noted that clean energy technologies are expected to spur future economic […]

South Korea OKs $7B Plan for New Shin Kori Reactors. Only two weeks after South Korea announced plans to cut the share of nuclear in its total future power supply to 29% by 2035 instead of 41% by 2030, the

The 16th annual ELECTRIC POWER Conference & Exhibition takes place in New Orleans this year, and it’s a fitting place to be discussing the many persistent and new challenges facing the power generation

Federal judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. ruled on Feb. 26 that Luminant had not violated the Clean Air Act (CAA) at its Big Brown Power Plant in Freestone County, Tex., as had been claimed in a Sierra Club lawsuit. Filed in May 2012, the lawsuit alleged that from July 2007 to the present certain emissions […]

On Feb. 24, President Obama approved a proposed agreement with Vietnam, which would allow for cooperation between the two countries concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The agreement has been in the works for some time and will now undergo a 90-day Congressional review period. Secretary of State John Kerry originally signed the deal with […]

In a surprising deal, the developer of a proposed $1 billion natural gas–fired power plant in Salem, Mass., has agreed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the new facility annually over its 40-year lifespan to meet state climate change mandates—and to permanently shutter the plant by 2050.  The settlement reached between New Jersey–based Footprint […]

A plan developed by Oklahoma to address regional haze that was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week will force Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO) to shutter two coal units by 2026. The agency on Feb. 10 approved Oklahoma’s state implementation plan (SIP) to control regional haze from two coal units owned […]

On Feb. 17, Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W) and TerraPower announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support the development of the traveling wave reactor (TWR). The TWR is a Generation IV commercial reactor design that uses depleted uranium as fuel. The 1,150-MW liquid sodium-cooled fast reactor is different from typical light […]

It has been a long time coming, but U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz will travel to Waynesboro, Ga., Feb. 20, to mark the issuance of approximately $6.5 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of two new nuclear reactors at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. A conditional loan guarantee was offered for […]

The first generation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies could increase wholesale power prices by 70% to 80%, but second generation technologies could halve those costs, an Energy Department official told lawmakers at a House hearing on Tuesday. “I continue to believe that coal is actually a required part of a vibrant American economy—part […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking comment on its interpretation of provisions in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005), which it claims do not alter the agency’s determination that the best system to reduce carbon emissions for new coal and gas-fired power plants is partial carbon capture and storage (CCS).  The issue […]

Scientists at the  U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have achieved a significant milestone in the development of fusion energy: achieving fuel gains greater than 1 for the first time ever at any facility. Ignition—when the energy released is equal to or greater than the energy required to confine the fuel—remains the […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today released its final version of a national framework for improving critical infrastructure cybersecurity. The “living” document will be updated as industry reports back on its implementation. The “Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” is essentially composed of a core, tiers, and profiles. The core presents five […]

What’s the utility of the future going to look like within two or three decades? That was a question put to former Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Great Plains CEO Mike Chesser, and former chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission Ron Binz by the head of the Brookings Institute’s Energy Security Initiative (ESI) last […]

While other companies contemplate early retirement for some nuclear plants due to economic woes, DTE Electric Co. is working to bump up the capacity of its nuclear unit. On Feb. 10, the company received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to increase the generating capacity of the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant by 19 […]

A natural gas shortage triggered by extreme cold weather in much of the U.S. and Canada has affected supplies to power plants in drought-stricken California and forced the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) on Thursday to issue a conservation alert.  CAISO said the natural gas shortage was only affecting Southern California but appealed to customers […]

“It’s as if the government—the [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] and the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)]—is trying to regulate the nuclear energy industry out of business, just like it’s been trying to regulate fossil fuels out of business,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), during the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works’ eighth NRC oversight […]

Legally binding targets to slash the European Union’s (EU) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40%, increase the bloc’s renewables’ share to 30%, and improve energy efficiency by 40%—all by 2030—were strongly backed by the European Parliament on Wednesday.   The EU’s directly elected parliamentary institution adopted a resolution by a vote of 341–263 to set […]

Legally binding targets to slash the European Union’s (EU) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40%, increase the bloc’s renewables’ share to 30%, and improve energy efficiency by 40%—all by 2030—were strongly backed by the European Parliament on Wednesday.   The EU’s directly elected parliamentary institution adopted a resolution by a vote of 341–263 to set […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling for public comment and information on approaches to updating radiation protection standards for nuclear power operations. The standards have not been updated since they were originally issued in 1977. The agency issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Feb. 4 in the Federal Register and related fact […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported on Feb. 4 that total releases of toxic chemicals decreased 12%, while toxic air releases were down 8% in its annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report. The data—from 2012—was compiled from 21,024 facilities that are required to report to TRI. Of that total, only 582 of the facilities fall […]

Oklahoma has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lawsuit that challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) authority to reject a state regional haze plan and replace it with a federal implementation plan (FIP). Last July, in a 2–1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld the EPA’s rejection of […]

The 35th Annual Energy Generation Conference (EGC) held in Bismarck, N.D., Jan. 28–30, highlighted the importance of North Dakota to national discussions of energy policy. The opening session focused on the oil and natural gas boom currently taking place in the state. The Bakken shale play is expected to produce over one million barrels of […]