News

In a major setback for Southern Co.’s 582-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) Kemper power plant that is under construction in Kemper County, Miss., the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed an order by the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) granting the project a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity.

In the past week, Ontario’s Bruce A restarted after 17-year hiatus, with hiccups; Indian state approval restarted work to complete Kudankulam; Vermont Yankee turned 40; and Entergy won a new legal round to keep the contested Vermont reactor operating.

NRG Energy last week filed a notice of intent with the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) to mothball Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 of its 635-MW Dunkirk coal-fired power plant near Buffalo, N.Y., by September this year until market conditions improve.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week conditionally approved an enforcement approach proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) that allows industry to self-report “low risk” reliability standard violations. The initiative will “free up resources and attention to address more serious risks to reliability,” FERC said in its decision.

An agreement reached between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Constellation Energy Commodities Group will require the company to pay $245 million to settle FERC allegations that the company manipulated power markets run by the New York Independent System Operator (ISO) and ISO New England between September 2007 and December 2008. The penalty is the largest ever imposed by FERC under the expanded enforcement authority assigned to the federal body in 2005.

Cap and trade programs to reduce emissions do not inherently provide incentives to induce the private sector to develop innovative technologies to address climate change, according to a new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Enough capacity exists in deep saline aquifers in the U.S. to store about a century’s worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s coal-fired power plants, a new study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shows.

A report released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) claims that though the U.S. solar power sector was hard hit by policy changes and plunging global prices of photovoltaic (PV) panel prices, it installed 1,855 MW of PV capacity last year—more than doubling the previous annual record of 887 MW set in 2010.

The Department of Energy has made $15 billion in loan guarantees and conditionally committed to another $15 billion, but its loan guarantee program lacks much-needed consolidated data on application status, which could make easier efficient management and program oversight, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found. The report was released on Monday, just before Energy Secretary Steven Chu defended the Obama administration’s loan programs before a Senate committee.

A bill introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday could force the government to provide rebates for $35.8 billion collected in the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund since 1983 to help build and operate the permanent federal nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, customers have been paying […]