Latest

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will retire more than 3 GW at eight coal units in Alabama and Kentucky to address “challenging trends” that point to lower power demand, a slow economy, uncertainty in commodity pricing, and tougher air pollution rules. The U.S. corporate agency’s board of directors on Nov. 14 approved plans to retire all […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced last week that the final shipment of low enriched uranium (LEU) derived from Russian nuclear weapons had departed from the port of St. Petersburg, Russia. “For two decades, one in ten light bulbs in America has been powered by nuclear material from Russian nuclear warheads. The 1993 United States-Russian […]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) today began the delicate process of removing spent fuel from Unit 4 of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The six-unit site has two reactor groups, comprising Units 1–4 and Units 5 and 6. Unit 4 is the only reactor of its group that did not suffer a meltdown following […]

A communiqué drafted by participants from 22 coal-heavy countries at the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) that was held in Washington D.C. last week affirms that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an indispensable element of any effective response to climate change. Members of the ministerial-level international climate change initiative also urged acceleration of the […]

Presenters provided several perspectives on the emerging shale gas sector in North America and around the world at the World Shale Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition in Houston, Texas, last week. One general takeaway is that a number of unpredictable factors could widely alter the sector’s “game-changing” outlook. Several forecasts, including the International Energy […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the federal Clean Air Act when it promulgated the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) in 2011, nine states argue in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court last week. The brief filed by a bipartisan group of attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, […]

Google and investment firm KKR announced on Nov. 14 that they are investing in six solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities in California and Arizona that are currently under development by San Francisco–based renewable energy company Recurrent Energy. The projects are expected to be operational by January. The six facilities, five in California and one in Arizona, will have […]

The European Commission announced last week that safety standards applied in Taiwanese nuclear power plants are generally high and comply with international state-of-the-art practices. The peer review—performed by the European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators’ Group (ENSREG)—did, however, strongly recommend further improvements in view of Taiwan’s vulnerability to natural hazards, such as earthquakes, […]

Dan Utech has replaced Heather Zichal as Director for Energy and Climate Change at the White House Domestic Policy Council. Zichal filled the role for more than five years and was a trusted advisor to President Obama. She crafted his energy and climate change agenda in 2008, and was a strong advocate for policies that […]

By 2035, renewables will hold a 30% share of the global power mix but just 1% of the world’s fossil fuel–fired power plants will be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS), reports the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its newly released World Energy Outlook (WEO-2013). The annual report presents a central scenario in which global […]