POWERnews

Just a month after American Electric Power (AEP) announced it would shut down 6 GW of its coal-fired capacity by 2014 because of new federal emission rules, the Ohio-based utility on Thursday terminated a cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy (DOE) and brought a $668 million project to commercialize carbon capture and storage (CCS) to a screeching halt, citing an uncertain U.S. climate policy and the weak economy.

Georgia Power and Georgia’s Public Service Commission (PSC) on Monday agreed, after long negotiations, that the state agency will withdraw a proposed risk-sharing mechanism for the company’s $14 billion two-reactor nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle, in Waynesboro, Ga., but it will retain the right to strike down costs as “imprudent” even after they have been verified and approved in the established semi-annual cost review process.

Backlash against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) newly finalized Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) mounted in the past week as Texas state agencies, utilities, and regional grid operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas separately warned that the state could face a generation shortage if the federal pollution rules were implemented as written.

A federal judge on Monday threw out Entergy Corp.’s bid for a preliminary injunction to stop the state of Vermont from shutting down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in March 2012, when its original 40-year license expires. The ruling will force the company to decide whether it will buy $65 million of nuclear fuel to keep the plant running until a trial begins this September, or to shut down the plant.

Duke Energy’s 862-MW W.C. Beckjord Station southwest of Cincinnati, Ohio, is the latest coal-fired power plant that will be shuttered as a result of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recently proposed Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule.

Portland General Electric (PGE) and environmental groups on Tuesday reached a consent decree that will resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations at the 585-MW Boardman power plant—Oregon’s only coal-fired plant—by capping sulfur dioxide emissions and phasing out the use of coal by 2020.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week proposed secondary air quality standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx), building on rules—like the recently finalized Cross State Air Pollution Rule—to reduce NOx and SOx emissions.

Rentech Inc.’s proposed St. Joe Renewable Energy Center—one of the world’s first biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) projects—last week received a final air permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and will now begin construction of the planned project.

On July 6, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which requires 27 states in the eastern U.S. to significantly improve air quality by reducing power plant emissions that contribute to ozone and/or fine particle pollution in other states. This rule replaces the EPA’s 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR).

The Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) has said it is concerned that Duke Energy has not demonstrated any “budgetary constraints” on the Edwardsport integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project under construction near Vincennes, Ind. And, in a reversal of position, the state agency representing utility ratepayer interests recommended that the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) should not approve the company’s request for cost recovery for more than $2.35 billion.