POWERnews

Princeton, N.J.-based NRG Energy and Houston, Texas-based GenOn on Monday signed a definitive agreement to combine the two companies in a $1.7 billion stock-for-stock tax-free transaction. The merger will create "the largest competitive generator" in the U.S. with a fleet of about 47 GW and assets in the East, Gulf Coast, and West, and a combined enterprise value of $18 billion, the companies said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week handed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) two legal victories over challenges from states and industry, affirming the agency’s revisions to the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and upholding its revised final sulfur dioxide (SO₂) standard.

Global solar trade tensions escalated on Friday as the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China announced it would launch both anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on imports of solar-grade polysilicon from the U.S. and an anti-dumping probe on South Korean polysilicon imports. Germany on Friday, meanwhile, said it would support its solar industry in anti-dumping action against China.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to stay and reconsider new source emission standards contained in its February 2012-finalized Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), a letter from the agency’s assistant administrator, Gina McCarthy, shows.

Since 1977, more than 6,500-MW of nuclear uprates and been approved and many implemented in the U.S.—equivalent to the construction of six new nuclear power plants, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in an update on Wednesday.

A new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claims that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a regulatory tactic dubbed “sue and settle rulemaking” to force states to relinquish their authority and accept agency-promulgated plans to mitigate regional haze that are much costlier to implement.

Most steam generator tube wear or tube wall thinning at Southern California Edison’s (SCE’s) two-reactor San Onofre Generating Station (SONGS) was less than 20%—far below the 35% wall-thinning limit that would require the tubes to be plugged, data released last week by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission shows. Much of the wear was not "unusual," SCE said in a statement.

The $2 billion Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) may be canceled this fall, a project analysis update from PJM Interconnection suggests. The grid operator for 13 states suspended the 765-kV project last year pending further analysis.

Two Republican lawmakers are probing whether the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) disregarded safety concerns and approved the Cape Wind project—the nation’s first offshore wind project—for political reasons.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday announced nearly $13 million in nuclear energy innovation awards. The awards include $10.9 million to 13 projects to solve common challenges, including improving reactor safety, performance and cost competitiveness and $1.6 million in three university-led education projects.