POWERnews

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) today rolled out a draft of the American Power Act, long-awaited climate and energy legislation developed with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). The 1,000-page-plus bill covers a variety of issues, from a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to expanded nuclear power and boosts for carbon capture and sequestration.

Barely three months after Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA) and CPS Energy negotiated a $1 billion settlement that reduced the San Antonio municipal utility’s share in the proposed nuclear expansion of the South Texas Project (STP), Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said on Monday it would take a 9.24% stake in the Bay City project.

UK-based National Grid on Friday agreed to buy power from the $1 billion Nantucket Sound Cape Wind project, a 468-MW offshore wind farm expected to be operational in 2012 that had garnered approval from the U.S. Interior Department just nine days earlier.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed two landmarks rules this past week: On Friday, it released regulations that seek to govern mercury emissions from some 200,000 industrial boiler process heaters and solid waste incinerators, and on Tuesday, it issued a long-awaited proposal to regulate coal ash—though it deferred a decision on whether to treat it as hazardous waste.

Rules adopted by the California Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday will force 19 coastal power plants—including two nuclear plants—in that state to phase out “once-through cooling” practices to reduce their impact on marine life. The new rules—the first in the U.S. to restrict ocean water use for existing power plants—could have widespread implications, including massive costs and forced shutdowns.

Mississippi Power Co.’s plans to build a 582-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant proposed in Kemper County could be scrapped after regulators last week ordered a cost recovery cap of $2.4 billion—some $800 million less than what the utility had originally sought.

A Superior Court judge in Georgia on Friday ruled that the state public service commission acted illegally when it certified Georgia Power’s two proposed Plant Vogtle reactors by failing to properly document justification for the reactors.

Progress Energy will postpone major construction activities at its proposed Levy County nuclear plant in Florida until after the project’s federal licensing is complete. The company last week said in a statement announcing its 2011 filing of nuclear cost-recovery estimates that the delay would allow for “greater clarity on federal and state energy policies.

San Diego–based Sempra Energy last week agreed to pay $410 million to settle a series of lawsuits and claims arising from the 2000–2001 California energy crises. The payments will go toward some $3.2 billion in settlements already negotiated by California’s attorney general and California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) with various energy companies that allegedly profited from artificially inflated power prices during the crisis.

The long-awaited Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill saw more delays this week as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) abandoned efforts to work with Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) on the legislation, citing frustration with reports that indicated congressional leadership and the administration were prioritizing immigration over climate and energy legislation.