Latest
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Legal & Regulatory
Trump’s Regulatory Rollback May Hit Roadblocks
President Donald Trump’s drive to roll back federal regulations, especially from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will not be simple or smooth, a veteran Washington, D.C., attorney said at a utility conference on February 8. Speaking at the Energy, Utility, and Environment Conference (EUEC) in San Diego, Calif., Thomas Lorenzen, a partner with D.C.–based law […]
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Coal
DONG Energy to Phase Out Coal Use in Power Plant Fleet
Denmark’s DONG Energy is the latest in a string of power companies that are shunning the use of coal in future generation fleets. The company said on February 8 it will stop burning coal completely by 2023 in its power stations, replacing it with sustainable biomass. The measure is part of a company-wide transformation towards […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Republicans Take Aim at EPA in Science Hearing, New Bill to Abolish Agency
As House Republicans issued a bill to dismantle the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week, a House committee held a hearing on how to make the agency “great again,” and former EPA employees expressed serious concerns about the looming nomination of Scott Pruitt to head the agency. The bill (H.R. 861), which seeks to […]
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Solar
Solar-Plus-Storage Could Increase Consumption and Emissions, Study Suggests
Pairing energy storage with rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has been widely touted as the path for greater deployment of renewable energy, but a new study from researchers at the University of Texas suggests doing so may actually increase overall energy consumption and emissions. The study, “The Impacts of Storing Solar Energy in the Home […]
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Legal & Regulatory
As Trump Takes Over, Who Wields Power?
What do we know as of February 1 about key Trump appointees responsible for administering White House policies affecting the power generation industry? Not much. As the Trump administration settles in, how his teams at energy and environment agencies will implement his policy agenda remains unclear, as does his agenda. At the end of January, […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Dems Boycott Pruitt Committee Vote, Perry, Zinke Proceed to Full Senate
Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee are digging their heels in, refusing to allow a vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Pruitt’s nomination was due to come to a vote February 1, but when it came time to gavel […]
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Solar
Trump’s DOE Announces $30M in Funding for Grid Integration of Solar
As one of its first announcements under the Trump administration, the Department of Energy (DOE) will invest up to $30 million in new projects to support the integration of solar into the nation’s electric grid. The agency’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy announced the measure as part of its SunShot Initiative, which the […]
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Gas
Developer of 550-MW Gas Power Plant Commits to Voluntary GHG Emission Reductions
In a step that it hopes will be emulated by developers of new natural gas generation facilities in the U.S., NTE Energy has voluntarily committed to drastically slash greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the proposed 550-MW Killingly Energy Center facility in Connecticut—and to shut it down by 2050 unless it operates with no net GHG […]
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Commentary
Yesterday’s Retail Tariff and a Transforming Grid
Yesterday’s retail tariff is prohibiting the optimal dispatch of cogeneration resources as our grid is transforming with high levels of solar generation and potential overgeneration issues. An Unintended Consequence of Policy California has some of the most ambitious energy efficiency and renewable energy goals in the world. Investments in renewable energy and other clean energy […]