Clean Power Plan

American Electric Power (AEP), one of the biggest coal generators in the U.S., is withdrawing funds and staff resources from heavy lobbying efforts against the Clean Power Plan, sinking them instead into preparations for compliance with the controversial climate rule. The company has informed the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that it will not be […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan (CPP) is likely to be complicated at least as much by political and legal opposition as by technological challenges in reducing carbon emissions, several speakers at POWER magazine’s inaugural conference on legal issues in the generation industry noted on Dec. 7 in Las Vegas. “Navigating Legal Implications of […]

Climate change litigation in the U.S. has far outpaced climate litigation in any other jurisdiction. In fact, according to Teri Donaldson, partner with DLA Piper, more lawsuits concerning climate change have been decided or settled in the U.S. than in the rest of the world combined. “The success rate in these cases is very low,” […]

The power sector should view the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recent drive to tighten regulations on air and water emissions as an opportunity to improve its efficiency and environmental footprint rather than as an obstacle, said EPA General Counsel Avi S. Garbow at POWER magazine’s inaugural conference on legal issues in the generation industry. “We want […]

The U.S. House of Representatives passed two joint resolutions on Dec. 1 designed to nullify the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan. The House votes come just two weeks after the Senate passed both resolutions on Nov. 17. Senate Joint Res. 23—sponsored by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—provides for congressional […]

A regional haze program final rule for Texas expected soon from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could speed up the retirement of about 4.7 GW of coal-fired capacity, warns the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in a new generation outlook. The grid operator’s Dec. 1–released “Report on the Capacity, Demand and Reserves (CDR) in […]

Florida’s Seminole Electric Cooperative faces what may be the most difficult generation transition in the nation as a result of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. One of the nation’s largest generation and transmission rural electric cooperatives, Seminole owes its origins and its current position primarily to a single coal-fired plant. When electric utility veteran […]

There’s an old saying in Washington that when everyone is upset, you’ve probably done something right. By that measure, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) latest update to the National

The U.S. Senate late on Nov. 17 passed a pair of resolutions that would overturn recent Environmental Protection Agency rules on power plant emissions, rules that form the core of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. The two resolutions, S.J. Res. 23 and S.J. Res. 24, were passed under a little-used provision known as the Congressional Review […]

Several experts, meeting in Washington on Nov. 6 for the White House Summit on Nuclear Energy, agreed that more nuclear power is needed if the world hopes to minimize the effects of climate change and limit the increase in average temperatures around the globe. The Two-Degree-C Scenario William D. Magwood IV, director-general of the Organisation […]