POWERnews

Illinois on Monday effected legislation that creates a framework for developing coal gasification projects with carbon dioxide capture and storage, and which requires emissions from these electric generation facilities to be as clean as those from natural gas generators.

As the Florida Public Service Commission reportedly considered implementing a “clean” standard, not just a “renewable” standard, last week FPL Energy changed its name to better reflect its green credentials.

In a major economic stimulus speech at Virginia’s George Mason University on Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama pledged to boost production of alternative energy and improve energy efficiency. He also urged the nation to begin building a smart grid.

Electricité de France (EDF) last week mobilized all its nuclear, hydraulic, and thermal energy generation resources in order to meet France’s climbing electricity consumption, which resulted from an exceptional bout of cold weather.

Weeks after a containment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant ruptured and caused a massive coal ash flood, the federal utility is now also working to repair a gypsum pond at its Widows Creek Fossil Plant in Alabama, after gypsum slurry overflowed into the creek Friday.

Investment research firm Morningstar Inc. named Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as its 2008 CEO of the Year, citing key investments in energy companies such as General Electric and Constellation Energy as reasons that cemented the award.

Japan, the island nation with nearly a tenth of the world’s active volcanoes, may soon see a resurgence in geothermal power. For the first time in 20 years, several Japanese companies have announced plans to build new geothermal power plants, Reuters reported on Monday.

Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. last week asked a district court for additional time to decide whether to install expensive pollution controls or close two coal-fired units at its R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside.

Joseph Kelliher, head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), announced Wednesday that he will step down as chairman effective Jan. 20. Kelliher said that although his term as commissioner would not end until 2012, he would immediately recuse himself from FERC business and explore other career opportunities.

Dynegy Inc. and LS Power Associates last week said they had dissolved a 2006 joint development venture that planned to expand Dynegy power plants and build new ones in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Nevada, partly because of credit and regulatory uncertainties.