News

IDEAL INDUSTRIES released an upgraded version of its popular HeatSeeker handheld thermal imaging camera. The new model features twice the resolution of legacy models and a wider field-of-view to improve troubleshooting efficiency. Engineered with a powerful 320 x 240 2MP sensor that captures 76K pixels, the new HeatSeeker 320 can be used for a wide […]

The new Luxxor Portable Video Camera quickly and easily attaches to any Hawkeye Rigid or Flexible Borescope, and most other major borescope brands as well, transforming them into a videoscope. Designed and manufactured by Gradient Lens Corp., the new Luxxor camera allows users to view internal visual inspection images on portable or benchtop video monitors, […]

ESAB Welding & Cutting Products introduced a new addition to the Weld Warrior line of personal protection equipment. The company’s FR Line of flame-retardant clothing is designed to give maximum protection to the professional welder while providing comfort in the most demanding environments. The new FR Line includes The Jersey—a lightweight pullover that is perfect […]

International pushback against China’s export restraints on rare earth elements, tungsten, and molybdenum intensified on Wednesday as the U.S., the European Union (EU), and Japan asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to establish a dispute settlement panel to vet the matter.

A federal court on Friday granted a request by Oklahoma for a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) final rule requiring the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions at four electric generating units in the state pending a review of the rule.

Owners of the 1962-built B.L. England Generating Station in New Jersey’s Cape May County will shutter the plant’s 113-MW coal-fired Unit 1 by 2013 and convert two other units to natural gas under the terms of an administrative consent order with New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The order fits in with New Jersey’s energy plan, which envisions a gradual phase-out of coal power.

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.’s (FENOC’s) conclusion that cracks in the shield building at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, were caused by environmental factors resulting from a blizzard in 1978 and aspects of the shield building’s design is sound, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied review of a case in which several states and citizen groups contend that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Order 697—issued in 2007 to improve market-based rate regulations—exceeds FERC’s authority under the Federal Power Act (FPA).

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was "unambiguously correct" in its interpretation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. The federal agency’s endangerment finding that greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide, are a threat to public health and welfare, and its decision to set limits for industrial and automotive emissions of GHGs, was "neither arbitrary nor capricious," the court ruled. The court, however, found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the timing and scope of the GHG rules that affect larger stationary sources, including new coal-fired power plants.

The State of Vermont "repeatedly failed" to present to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) objections that Entergy Corp., owner of the controversial Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, lacked a necessary state water permit before the commission granted the reactor a 20-year operating license extension, a federal court ruled on Tuesday as it threw out the state’s legal challenge against the NRC.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers properly followed permitting procedures when it verified that Puget Sound Energy (PSE) could lower a dam in the single narrow channel above Washington State’s landmark Snoqualmie Falls to mitigate flooding issues upstream, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on Tuesday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finalized a key rule that intends to facilitate the integration of variable energy resources (VERs) and proposed another that clarifies the reporting of transactions involving energy storage facilities. The body also announced in the past week that it would soon eliminate the current system used by public utilities to report required electricity data on a quarterly basis, as well as approve the North American Electric Reliability Corp.’s (NERC’s) revisions to the definition of the bulk electric system.

The United States is in a "fierce race" to compete in global solar energy markets, and its success depends on innovation and deploying solar energy at scale, said Steven Chu, secretary of the Department of Energy. He spoke at the SunShot Grand Challenge summit and technology forum in Denver last week. Chu called on the solar industry to drive down costs to enable the technology to compete against natural gas at a price of around $4 per million Btu.

Unexpected steam generator tube wear that prompted the indefinite shutdown of Southern California Edison’s (SCE’s) San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in January was caused by excessive tube vibration, company executives confirmed at a community meeting on Monday. Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) meanwhile pinned the tube failures on a flawed computer model used to design the steam generator components.

Though many have touted the vast promise of ocean energy, it has been slow to reach commercial scale, especially in North America. Today, offshore generating technologies are less of an impediment to commercial project fruition than permitting, financing, and transmission challenges, but small changes are beginning to brighten the outlook for the newest power industry sector.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday narrowly rejected a measure that would have overturned the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), voting 46 to 53 to defeat the resolution introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

In an effort to slash its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) last week said it would terminate a contract to buy power from a units of NV Energy’s Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant in Nevada and instead rely on power from Northern California Power Agency’s (NCPA) 255-MW Lodi combined cycle natural gas-fired plant, which is under construction.

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) on Monday completed and put into service its 500-kV Sunrise Powerlink, a $1.9 billion transmission line linking San Diego to the renewables-rich Imperial Valley.

In response to a court order, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed updates on Friday to its national air quality standards for harmful fine particle pollution, including soot (known as PM2.5). The agency says that 99% of U.S. counties are projected to meet proposed standards without any additional actions.

Do we really have only a decade of gas left? Or a century? Or more than that? The answer requires agreement on some definitions, and a solid grip on the big picture.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Monday conditionally approved the enhanced resource adequacy proposal submitted by the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO), which it says will provide even greater market and reliability benefits to MISO’s members and the customers they serve. The enhanced mechanisms become effective October 1, 2012, for the Planning Year that begins on June 1, 2013.

A host of new technologies are ready to transform the energy system, offering the potential to drastically reduce carbon emissions, enhance energy security, and generate a huge investment return, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new energy technology publication launched on Monday.

In a long-running labor dispute, Entergy Corp. on June 7 locked out union workers at its Pilgrim nuclear plant 38 miles southeast of Boston near Plymouth, Mass., bringing in workers from its other plants and contract workers to operate the 685-MW unit along with management officials.

Natural gas-fired generation enjoyed a competitive advantage through this past winter and spring as historically low prices for the commodity combined with mild weather and relatively light demand to turn the dispatch stack on its head and favor gas over coal. That advantage is narrowing as summer demand approaches. A senior market analyst with Bentek Energy expects coal-fired generation to be advantaged at least until the fall shoulder season.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Circuit ruled unanimously on Friday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) erred in deciding that spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the nation’s power plants could be stored as long as 60 years after a plant’s operating license expires.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy received conditional approval for their merger from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on June 8. The companies plan to close their merger, which would create the nationís largest utility, by the targeted date of July 1.

Mayors of more than 90 U.S. cities have signed a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson voicing their support for the recent EPA Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants (MATS).

All indications from Wednesday’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee joint hearing are that Dr. Alison Macfarlane will been confirmed as the new chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and that Commissioner Kristine Svinicki will be approved for a second term. Macfarlane, a nuclear waste expert who served on the White House’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Americaís Nuclear Future, was nominated by President Barack Obama last month after Chairman Gregory Jaczko, whose leadership style was described by commissioners from both political parties as abusive, resigned May 21.

Regulated utility South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) last week filed plans with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina to retire up to six coal-fired units—a total capacity of 750 MW—by 2018. The units are some of the utility’s “oldest and smallest,” and it would not be a “good business decision” to add costly environmental control equipment to these plants, SCE&G said.

American Electric Power (AEP) last week temporarily withdrew a $1 billion plan to retrofit its 49-year-old Big Sandy coal-fired plant near Louisa, Ky., from the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC), saying it wanted to reevaluate alternatives to meeting the company’s obligations under the recently finalized federal Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, the Mercury and Air Toxic Standard, and other environmental standards.