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Study: Environmental Regulation, Infrastructure, Workforce Issues Top Issues Worrying Power Executives
An annual survey of more than 100 executives from the U.S. and Canadian electric and natural gas industries by consulting firm Capgemini has found that the five most critical challenges facing the North American energy industry are environmental regulation, aging infrastructure, non-environmental regulation, an aging industry workforce, and the need for new pricing mechanisms.
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EPA Postpones Effective Date for Boiler Standards, Releases Coal Ash Action
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday issued a stay postponing the effective date of the standards for major source boiler and commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators to allow the agency to continue seeking “additional public comment before an updated rule is proposed.” On Tuesday, it released action plans developed by 20 electric utilities to safeguard the structural integrity of their coal ash impoundments. -
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BRC Subcommittee Draft Recommendations Call for Permanent Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility
Preliminary recommendations presented by three Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) subcommittees on Friday call for, among other measures, a new entity that could quickly develop one or more permanent deep geological nuclear waste disposal facilities. The recommendations could become part of the BRC’s final recommendations due on Jan. 29, 2012, that address how the U.S. will deal with spent nuclear waste. -
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ERCOT: Proposed EPA Rules Could Shutter 8,000 MW of Gas-Fired Generation in Texas
Four rule changes proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would likely not result in the retirement of a “significant amount” of coal plants, but they could shut down more than 8,000 MW of gas-fired generation, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Those retirements could reduce generation reserve margins in the state to below 2% in 2015, the Texas grid operator says. -
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BPA Limits Power Output from Non-Hydro Sources Amid Surging Runoff Volume
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal nonprofit agency that markets wholesale power from 31 federal hydro projects in the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest, on Friday said that high seasonal river flows and hydroelectric generation had prompted it to temporarily limit output from non-hydropower resources—including wind. A wind industry group has criticized the decision as “wrongheaded” and says it could cost wind companies tens of millions of dollars. -
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NRC Finds All Reactors Safe, Scales Back Monitoring at Fukushima
After inspecting the abilities of the 104 nuclear reactors operating in the U.S. to deal with power losses or damage to large areas following extreme events, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Friday said “all reactors would be kept safe.” On Monday, it also announced it would scale back monitoring of the Fukushima Daiichi situation because “conditions at the Japanese reactors are slowly stabilizing.” -
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Regulators Give Three New U.S. Reactors Environmental Consents
In the past week Luminant’s proposed Comanche Peak Units 3 and 4 and UniStar’s proposed Calvert Cliffs Unit 3 reactors received environmental approvals associated with applications for combined construction and operation licenses (COLs) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
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Pakistan Opens New Nuclear Reactor
Pakistan inaugurated its third nuclear power plant on Thursday. The 330-MW Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1, built with Chinese assistance, will help the country battle a critical power shortfall, authorities reportedly said. -
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Three States Vote to Stay in RGGI
Delaware, New Hampshire, and Maine last week separately passed measures to continue participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-trade program that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. -
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Dominion to Shut Down Mass., Ind. Coal Plants on EPA Rule Uncertainties
Dominion plans to shutter two of the four units at Salem Harbor Power Station by the end of this year, and it will close the entire plant in Salem, Mass., by June 2014 because “pending environmental regulations and market conditions are making the power station uneconomical to operate,” the company announced today. The news comes on the heels of the announced closure of Dominion’s State Line Power Plant in Hammond, Ind.