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The city of Chicago on Thursday reintroduced an ordinance that could shut down two coal-burning power plants in the city owned by Midwest Generation, an Edison International subsidiary.

The UK plans to shutter its Sellafield Mixed Oxide (MOX) plant (SMP) as soon as it is practically feasible because the March 2011 Japanese quake and subsequent nuclear crisis at Fukushima have changed the facility’s commercial risk profile, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said today.

The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP)—a consensus-based group of more than 675 public and private organizations created by the National Institute of Standards (NIST)—has made the first six entries into its new Catalog of Standards, a technical document that is expected to serve as a guide for smart grid–related technology.

The Yucca Mountain fracas last week became more intense as the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) joined a coalition of state and local governments in a suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The petitioners claim the agency is “unreasonably delaying” a decision on the proposed—and now-defunct—permanent spent nuclear fuel repository in Nevada.

The share of electricity generated from coal in the U.S. during the first three months of this year was at its lowest first-quarter level in more than three decades—even though the overall total level of generation in the U.S. increased by a little less than 1%, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported last week.

Alberta’s provincial government last week signed a final funding agreement for a unique carbon capture and storage (CCS) project that seeks to tap a deep unmineable coalbed and turn the coal into power-generating synthetic gas—or “syngas”—while underground.

Plans have been delayed to build a small-scale coal gasification facility that would have enabled researchers from the University of Wyoming (UW) and GE Energy to understand the conversion of feedstock by gasification into syngas for use in power generation. The delay of at least 18 to 24 months stems from a lack of federal energy policy, Wyoming’s Governor Matt Mead said on Friday.

The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced a $50 million investment over two years for the SUNPATH program, an initiative that seeks to help the U.S. reclaim a competitive edge in solar technology manufacturing.

The European Union has adopted a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system as part of its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Beginning January 2012, aircraft flight engines will be added to the emissions sources regulated by the ETS. A Solutions Fellow at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change believes these regulations are an important step in regulating carbon emissions. You be the judge.

Why should utilities consider converting existing coal-fired plants to burn gas? We explore the rationale for fuel switching, some of the options available for the conversion of coal-fired units, technical considerations related to conversion, and some of the financial considerations that will impact the final decision.