POWERnews

A plan to build a controversial $4.7 billion coal-fired power plant in Scotland’s Ayrshire County that would have been fitted with experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology was last week thrown out by the North Ayrshire Council, and citizens lodged more than 20,000 objections with the legislative body.

If the Senate votes on a measure this week to overturn the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) using the Congressional Review Act, as has been spearheaded by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), President Obama would veto the resolution.

The Obama administration on Tuesday posted a notice on the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website that indicates the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed a copy of proposed rules to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new, modified, and existing power plants.

A new bill to extend compliance deadlines for the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) and Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule was introduced in the U.S. Senate today by Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.).

Minnesota’s Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA) of 2007—a law that restricts carbon dioxide emissions produced by power generators who export electricity to the state—violates the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution and interferes with North Dakota’s energy production, North Dakota argued in a lawsuit filed against Minnesota last week.

Black Hills Corp. will build and begin operating a natural gas–fired power plant in Wyoming and shutter three aging coal plants in the state by 2014 as part of a “future compliance” plan to meet growing power demand as federal environmental rules go into effect.

Several environmental groups have asked a federal appeals court to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to grant a Clean Air Act Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit to the 600-MW gas-fired Avenal Energy Project proposed for construction in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The groups contend that the agency exempted the project from several key air pollution standards.

Without a bold change of policy direction, the world will lock itself into an insecure, inefficient, and high-carbon energy system, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned as it launched the 2011 edition of the World Energy Outlook (WEO) today in London.

The collapse of a retaining bluff near We Energies’ coal-fired Oak Creek Power Plant on Monday morning sent debris, dredging equipment, and parts of a ravine filled with coal ash more than 50 years ago spewing into Lake Michigan.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday certified an amended version of the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR), the third-generation reactor design offered separately by GE-Hitachi and Toshiba, which has been chosen for new nuclear builds at the South Texas Project (STP) site. The NRC’s decision means that nuclear developers in the U.S. can use the reactor in proposed projects.

GenOn’s coal-fired 400-MW Portland Generating Station in Pennsylvania’s Northampton County must significantly cut its sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions with three years because they are adversely impacting air quality in Warren, Sussex, Morris, and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled on Monday as it granted its first-ever single source petition.

A fire that ignited in three of four steel coal bunkers at the 503-MW John Twitty Energy Center in Springfield, Mo., has sent three City Utilities (CU) of Springfield employees to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning. Investigation into what caused the fires is ongoing.

A new Energy Information Administration (EIA) report analyzing the economic impacts of a proposed national Clean Energy Standard (CES) projects that in 2035, a CES could increase power generation costs by almost 30% nationwide.

Beacon Power, a much-watched flywheel energy storage developer that last year received a $43 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department, on Sunday filed for bankruptcy to allow the company to operate its business “without interruption.”

Fresh concerns surfaced for Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the embattled owner of tsunami-hit Fukushima power plant, on Tuesday. TEPCO, which is struggling to bring reactors at the plant to cold shutdown by the end of the year, detected substances from a nuclide analysis of gas emitted from Daiichi 2 that showed a fission reaction had occurred.

A new rule enacted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday orders organized wholesale power market operators to pay “just and reasonable rates” for providers of regulation service, an ancillary transmission service that protects the grid by correcting deviations in grid frequency and balance on transmission lines with neighboring systems.

An Alberta court on Friday rejected an environmental group’s challenge to the August-issued Alberta Utility Commission approval of a planned 500-MW supercritical coal-fired addition at the 150-MW H.R. Milner Generating Station in the Grande Cache area. The court’s decision paves the way for Maxim Power to begin construction of the controversial unit—the first coal plant built in the province in a decade.

After three years of development, dozens of public workshops, and hundreds of meetings with stakeholders, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) on Thursday adopted a final rule to cap California’s greenhouse gas emissions and put a price on carbon. The cap-and-trade program starts in 2013 for electric utilities and large industrial facilities.

Florida’s Public Service Commission (PSC) on Monday approved cost recovery amounts for construction of new nuclear power facilities and additions to existing nuclear plants planned by Progress Energy Florida and Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL). The decision would help secure “a diversified and stable energy future for Florida,” regulators said.

Surging coal prices have continued to prompt generators to displace some coal used for power generation with natural gas, and gas demand is again expected to jump this winter, which could pose some supply restraints, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said in its Winter 2011-2012 Energy Market Assessment.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking contenders for a three-year-long funding opportunity for applied scientific research to advance novel concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies. The $60 million investment is part of the DOE’s SunShot Initiative, a collaborative effort to reduce the cost of solar energy 75% and make it cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.

A companion bill to the U.S. House’s recently passed Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act (H.R. 2273) was last week introduced in the Senate by Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).

Heavy rain in key mining areas in India has caused a critical coal shortage and restricted supplies to several major coal-fired power plants in the nation that fuels 55% of its power capacity with coal.

NextEra Energy Resources today powered up the 5-MW Hatch Solar Center, in Hatch, N.M., a project it says is the largest operating concentrating photovoltaic solar power plant in North America.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regulatory Relief Act of 2011 (H.R. 2250) by a vote of 275-42 .The bill, which seeks to limit the federal agency’s rules limiting toxic air pollutants from commercial and industrial boilers and thwart the EPA from proposing a new standard for at least 15 months after enactment, now heads to the Senate, where it is unlikely to pass, industry analysts say.

On Friday, following passage of a bill to delay Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–promulgated Boiler MACT rules, the U.S. House of Representatives also passed the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act (H.R. 2273), legislation that would impede the federal agency from proceeding with its May 2010 proposed rule to regulate coal ash residuals.

An association of 41 European transmission system operators (TSOs) from 34 countries last week warned that adequacy margins in the coming winter could dip dangerously and threaten power supply for most of the continent.

A coalition of seven U.S. manufacturers of solar cells and panels today petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate whether Chinese manufacturers are illegally dumping crystalline silicon solar cells into the U.S. market and receiving illegal subsidies from China. The measure follows a string of bankruptcy filings by several U.S. solar manufacturers in the past few months.

New variants of Stuxnet—the sophisticated computer virus designed to attack control systems and which was used last year to sabotage the Iranian Bushehr nuclear power plant—has been detected in European computer systems. The malware, dubbed “Duqu” is “essentially the precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack,” computer security firm Symantec said on Tuesday.

A study conducted by the New York Independent System Operator Inc. (NYISO) to evaluate whether the cost of compliance with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)—a regional cap-and-trade program—has caused an increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in neighboring non-RGGI areas such as Pennsylvania concluded RGGI has not caused an increase in emissions or significantly affected the pattern of power supply.