Latest

  • U.S. Initiates WTO Proceedings in Indian Solar Dispute

    The U.S. last week called for World Trade Organization (WTO) consultations to settle a dispute in which it alleges that India’s national solar program appears to discriminate against U.S. solar equipment by requiring solar energy producers in the South Asian country to use Indian-made solar cells and modules.

  • Environmental Groups Sue DOI for Narrow Focus on Public Lands as Solar Zones

    A legal battle is brewing between the Department of the Interior (DOI) and three public-interest environmental groups that claim the government failed to consider degraded lands for the siting of "destructive" utility-scale solar plants, and that it focused instead on millions of acres of public land when it established solar energy zones in six southwestern states.

  • Latest Olkiluoto EPR Delay Puts Project 8 Years Behind Original Schedule

    An EPR reactor under construction by an AREVA-Siemens consortium in Finland may not start operating until 2016, two years later than its revised start date in 2014, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said on Monday. Construction of the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) unit began in May 2005, and the new possible start date could put it eight years behind its initial schedule.

  • Northeast, Mid-Atlantic Power Plants to See Drastic RGGI Lowering of CO2 Cap

    Nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will see a 45% lowering of the market-based regulatory program’s carbon dioxide (CO2) cap in 2014, under an updated model rule released last week. The change is expected to reduce projected 2020 power sector CO2 emissions from the region to more than 45% below those in 2005.

  • EPA Releases Draft Climate Change Adaption Plan

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday began accepting comments on its draft Climate Change Adaption Plan, a document that seeks to integrate climate change considerations into future programs and regulations.

  • Obama Calls for Market-Based Climate Change Solution in SOTU

    President Obama outlined a number of key energy-related measures in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, urging Congress to pursue legislation to mitigate climate change and calling for an expansion of clean energy and reduced red-tape for natural gas and oil permits.

  • New Cybersecurity Executive Order Has Mixed Implications for Energy Sector

    President Obama on Tuesday signed a highly anticipated executive order that lays out the administration’s cybersecurity plans to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. Portions of the order would be welcomed by the energy sector, but others raised potential concerns, experts said.

  • DOE Charts Progress for FutureGen 2.0

    FutureGen 2.0, a government-backed project that involves the upgrade of a coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Ill., with oxy-combustion technology to capture 90% of that plant’s carbon emissions and then sequester them underground, has entered its second phase, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Monday.

  • Arizona Challenges EPA’s Regional Haze BART Mandate in Federal Court

    The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) imposition of a federal implementation plan (FIP) to curb regional haze that could force coal-fired power plants in Arizona to install $1 billion in pollution controls was challenged by the state in federal court last week.

  • Progress Energy to Scrap Crystal River Nuclear Plant

    The beleaguered Crystal River Nuclear Plant in Citrus County, Fla.—which has been in shutdown and offline since late 2009 due to damage to its containment building—is to be retired, Progress Energy Florida announced on Tuesday.