News
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Legal & Regulatory
New EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Sets Out to Restrain Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) administrative priorities will be reined in to focus on process, rule of law, and cooperation with states, the agency’s new head Scott Pruitt told attendees at CERAweek by IHS Markit on March 9. Since the former Oklahoma Attorney General was sworn in as EPA administrator in late February, the agency has […]
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Nuclear
Six Years After Fukushima, Only Three Reactors Operating in Japan, More Poised to Restart
Six years after the Fukushima disaster prompted an electricity crisis in Japan and sent tremors throughout the world’s nuclear power sector, Japan is determined to continue its reliance on nuclear for nearly a fifth of its power needs in the long term. Nuclear will make up 20% to 22% of Japan’s power mix by 2030, […]
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Coal
India Moves to Boost Oil, Gas Production to Bolster Future Renewables Additions
India will open all 26 of its sedimentary basins to allow domestic and foreign investors to explore conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas resources in a bid to escalate its indigenous oil and gas production, reduce imports, and support a planned influx of renewable power. Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told […]
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Coal
Coal Industry Cautious About Future Growth, Trump Rhetoric
While investor interest in U.S. coal production is seeing a revival, President Donald Trump can do little to directly help the flailing industry, coal producers and investors said at CERAweek by IHS Market, which is taking place in Houston this week. After a period of financial calamity that was prompted by the collapse of natural […]
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News
Molten Salt Reactor Claims Melt Down Under Scrutiny
It was an astonishing event when two MIT nuclear engineering graduate students at the end of 2015 announced they had come up with a revolutionary design for a molten salt nuclear reactor that could solve many of the technological problems of conventional light-water reactors. Cofounders of the firm Transatomic – Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie […]
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Nuclear
Fukushima Cleanup Hitting Snags as Robot Probes Fail
The epic recovery from the 2011 accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, already predicted to take decades and cost at least $35 billion, is encountering delays as a series of robot probes have failed due to encountering more difficult conditions than expected, plant owner Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said this month. TEPCO’s head of […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Perry Confirmed as Secretary of Energy
With a vote of 62–37, the Senate on March 2 confirmed former Texas governor Rick Perry as the new secretary of energy. Perry received the support of 10 Democratic senators: Mark Warner (Va.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Tom Udall (N.M.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.), […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Odds Are Against a Coal Comeback, Duke CEO Says
Regardless of recent federal support for a revitalization of coal in the U.S., “the economics are challenged,” Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy, said March 1 during a presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit. “I think coal continues to be an important part of a […]
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Smart Grid
U.S. Lagging in Efforts to Automate the Grid
The U.S. is in around “100th place” worldwide when it comes to efforts to automate the grid, Thomas Siebel, chairman and CEO of C3 IoT, said March 1 during a keynote presentation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit. “They’re not even in the game, and I […]
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Renewables
Minnesota Looks to Double Renewable Energy Standard to 50% by 2030
Bipartisan lawmakers in Minnesota want utilities in that state to procure 50% of power sold by 2030 from renewable sources. The measure, if passed, could put the state’s renewable efforts on par with California’s. The bipartisan bill introduced in the Minnesota Legislature on February 27 seeks to double the state’s renewable energy standard, which is […]