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The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) last week unanimously granted approval for 345-kV transmission lines sought for the proposed $1.6 billion Big Stone II coal-fired plant in South Dakota.

Almost a week after Russia’s state-run gas export monopoly Gazprom cut nearly its entire capacity of natural gas exports to Europe over a pricing dispute with neighboring Ukraine, the countries hard hit by the halt in supply are looking for ways to wean themselves from Russian gas.

Entergy Nuclear on Friday temporarily suspended reviews of two new nuclear license applications specific to GE-Hitachi’s Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR), while Dominion said it will explore alternative nuclear power options for its proposed North Anna Unit 3 in Virginia.

Illinois on Monday effected legislation that creates a framework for developing coal gasification projects with carbon dioxide capture and storage, and which requires emissions from these electric generation facilities to be as clean as those from natural gas generators.

As the Florida Public Service Commission reportedly considered implementing a “clean” standard, not just a “renewable” standard, last week FPL Energy changed its name to better reflect its green credentials.

In a major economic stimulus speech at Virginia’s George Mason University on Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama pledged to boost production of alternative energy and improve energy efficiency. He also urged the nation to begin building a smart grid.

Electricité de France (EDF) last week mobilized all its nuclear, hydraulic, and thermal energy generation resources in order to meet France’s climbing electricity consumption, which resulted from an exceptional bout of cold weather.

Weeks after a containment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant ruptured and caused a massive coal ash flood, the federal utility is now also working to repair a gypsum pond at its Widows Creek Fossil Plant in Alabama, after gypsum slurry overflowed into the creek Friday.

Investment research firm Morningstar Inc. named Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as its 2008 CEO of the Year, citing key investments in energy companies such as General Electric and Constellation Energy as reasons that cemented the award.

Dynegy Inc. and LS Power Associates last week said they had dissolved a 2006 joint development venture that planned to expand Dynegy power plants and build new ones in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Nevada, partly because of credit and regulatory uncertainties.