News

A rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) directs 36 states to revise their Clean Air Act State Implementation Plans (SIPs) to eliminate exemptions for excess emissions of air pollutants at power plants during startup, shutdown, or when the plant malfunctions.

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week announced the availability of up to $20 million for the development of tools and technologies to enhance cybersecurity of delivery control systems for electricity, oil, and gas in the U.S.

A think tank affiliated with the New York University School of Law is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mandate cuts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in all 50 U.S. states through a little-used section of the Clean Air Act.

Nuclear power will play a significant role in the nation’s energy future, though a nuclear expansion will be hindered by several factors—foremost among them low natural gas prices and a lack of a comprehensive national energy policy, Dominion Chair, President, and CEO Thomas Farrell II told attendees at the Platts Nuclear Energy Conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

The U.S. House voted 422–0 last week, approving a bill that could facilitate the development of small hydropower and conduit projects and direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider streamlining its two-year permitting process.

Boosted by President Obama’s inaugural address commitment to mitigate climate change, congressional Democrats have initiated several more climate measures. A legislative packet that seeks to mitigate climate change by enacting a carbon "fee" of $20 per ton of emitted carbon or methane equivalent was introduced last week by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). In the House, as several Democratic amendments for climate change hearings were voted down, more than 40 lawmakers urged President Obama to create a panel that would help communities deal with climate change events.

An agreement reached on Friday between PNM, New Mexico’s largest electricity provider, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calls for the retirement of two units at the 1,800-MW coal-fired San Juan Generating Station by 2017 to comply with federal visibility rules. The remaining two units will be retrofitted with selective noncatalytic reduction technology by 2016, a nitrogen-oxide reducing technology.

Members of the Mississippi House passed a pair of rate mitigation and securitization bills that would allow the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) to approve a multiyear rate plan for Mississippi Power’s $2.88 billion Kemper integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant that is under construction in Kemper County.

The U.S. last week called for World Trade Organization (WTO) consultations to settle a dispute in which it alleges that India’s national solar program appears to discriminate against U.S. solar equipment by requiring solar energy producers in the South Asian country to use Indian-made solar cells and modules.

A legal battle is brewing between the Department of the Interior (DOI) and three public-interest environmental groups that claim the government failed to consider degraded lands for the siting of "destructive" utility-scale solar plants, and that it focused instead on millions of acres of public land when it established solar energy zones in six southwestern states.

An EPR reactor under construction by an AREVA-Siemens consortium in Finland may not start operating until 2016, two years later than its revised start date in 2014, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said on Monday. Construction of the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) unit began in May 2005, and the new possible start date could put it eight years behind its initial schedule.

Nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will see a 45% lowering of the market-based regulatory program’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) cap in 2014, under an updated model rule released last week. The change is expected to reduce projected 2020 power sector CO₂ emissions from the region to more than 45% below those in 2005.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday began accepting comments on its draft Climate Change Adaption Plan, a document that seeks to integrate climate change considerations into future programs and regulations.

President Obama outlined a number of key energy-related measures in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, urging Congress to pursue legislation to mitigate climate change and calling for an expansion of clean energy and reduced red-tape for natural gas and oil permits.

President Obama on Tuesday signed a highly anticipated executive order that lays out the administration’s cybersecurity plans to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. Portions of the order would be welcomed by the energy sector, but others raised potential concerns, experts said.

Criticism from Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Rep. David McKinley (R-W.V.) has reportedly prompted the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to revise a December 2012 report in which it found coal ash bills sponsored by the lawmakers would not guarantee the protection of human health and the environment.

Sally Jewell, who has been CEO of REI, a privately held outdoor recreation gear retail corporation organized as a consumers’ cooperative, has been nominated as the next secretary of the interior, the White House announced on Wednesday.

FutureGen 2.0, a government-backed project that involves the upgrade of a coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Ill., with oxy-combustion technology to capture 90% of that plant’s carbon emissions and then sequester them underground, has entered its second phase, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Monday.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) imposition of a federal implementation plan (FIP) to curb regional haze that could force coal-fired power plants in Arizona to install $1 billion in pollution controls was challenged by the state in federal court last week.

The beleaguered Crystal River Nuclear Plant in Citrus County, Fla.—which has been in shutdown and offline since late 2009 due to damage to its containment building—is to be retired, Progress Energy Florida announced on Tuesday.

In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, state utility regulators and nuclear utilities rejected claims in a recent Department of Energy (DOE) filing that Nuclear Waste Fund fees were necessary, and they called on the court to temporarily suspend the fees.

Citing low natural gas prices, Duke Energy announced on Feb. 1 that it would shutter its 1920s-built Buck and Riverbend stations two years before the coal-fired plants were slated for retirement. The company had chosen to retire the plants just before April 2015, which is the compliance deadline for recently enacted federal environmental rules.

A newly announced resource strategy could require Duluth, Minn.–based Minnesota Power to convert its 110-MW Laskin Energy Center in Hoyt Lakes, Minn., to a natural gas peaking facility in 2015, install environmental upgrades at its 558-MW Clay Boswell Energy Center Unit 4 in Itasca County, and retire one of three coal-fired units at its 225-MW Taconite Harbor facility in Schroeder.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu ended weeks of speculation by announcing that he will not serve a second term in the Obama administration. In his Feb. 1 announcement, Chu said, “In the short term, I plan to stay on as Secretary past the ARPA-E Summit at the end of February. I may stay beyond that time so that I can leave the Department in the hands of the new Secretary.”

New analysis by the World Resources Institute (WRI) finds that the U.S. is not on track to reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 17% by 2020 (below 2005 levels) but that it has the tools to get there. Specifically, the report looks at steps the Obama Administration and states can take without congressional action. Those steps would, not surprisingly, require emissions reductions from existing power plants and natural gas systems.

An energy blueprint released on Monday by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the ranking minority member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, calls for complete independence from OPEC oil by 2020.

>Finding ways to deliver the gas for the next generation of gas-fired power plants is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the power sector in the coming decade.

In case you neglected to mark it on your calendar, the Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) expired at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The 15-year-old treaty was by every account a failure. Global carbon dioxide emissions are up over 50%, yet global temperatures decreased over the same period. Relying […]

ESAB Welding & Cutting Products introduced Warrior, a new multiprocess power source and feeder designed for processes including energy generation construction, pipe welding, general fabrication, and repair and maintenance. Designed for GMAW (MIG), FCAW (flux-cored), SMAW (stick), and GTAW (TIG) welding as well as ACAG (arc gouging), Warrior delivers up to 500 amps at 60% […]

The VAC-U-MAX self-contained granular activated carbon (GAC) delivery system is mounted on a self-contained skid. This system is a complete prepackaged dilute phase pneumatic conveyor system to deliver or remove GAC from scrubber towers and holding tanks. Tubular probing wands, convey hose, filter receiver, vacuum pump, and control panel are included. (http://www.vac-u-max.com)