By Kennedy Maize Remember fusion? When it comes to the always touted, never delivered promise of unlimited amounts of energy from smashing atoms together, spring turning to summer produces optimistic proclamations of the advent of fusion energy that appear to wither and die when the autumn equinox arrives. How far away is the practical application … More Fusion and confusion with the perhaps-for-never fuel
By Kennedy Maize The Department of Energy’s long standing cleanup of its legacy nuclear weapons program is short staffed…and it shows. That’s a finding from the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency. According to a GAO report last month (May 19), DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which is responsible for cleaning up the … More GAO: DOE’s weapons program cleanup faces deliberate short staffing
By Henry Sokolski With his declaration May 12th that Iran could enrich uranium after a moratorium, President Trump opened up a nuclear Pandora’s box. Whether he seals the deal to take possession of all of Iran’s uranium or fails to reach any nuclear understanding with Tehran at all, his willingness to allow Iran eventually to … More Guest commentary: Getting Iran’s right to enrich wrong
By Kennedy Maize Interior Secretary Doug Burgum can’t seem to figure out how to reconcile his offshore energy leasing policies with national security. Managing the linkage has left him looking less interested in substance than in bowing to Donald Trump’s often uninformed likes and dislikes. First, at Trump’s order, he halted work on five developing … More Doug Burgum’s goofy-footed national security stance
By Kennedy Maize The Trump administration is pondering resurrecting a nuclear power application 54 years after an earlier, quite similar, attempt cratered. The Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) earlier this month (May 7) issued a “request for information” launching what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described as “an initiative to develop Small Modular Nuclear Reactors … More Administration looks back to the future on nuclear powered ships
By Kennedy Maize The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday (May 21) began a process to update its fast-track “blanket permitting process” under the Natural Gas that allows routine natural gas pipeline projects to proceed without full regulatory review. The commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) outlining how it plans to streamline and modernize … More FERC to accelerate routine gas pipeline project reviews
By Kennedy Maize After a week of hints and speculation, Florida-based NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) and Virginia-based Dominion Energy (NYSE:D) Monday (May18) announced a friendly merger in a $67 billion deal that will create a $400 billion electric behemoth with some 10 million customers, In a news release, Dominion claimed the deal “will create the world’s … More NextEra, Dominion merger a sign of things to come?
By Kennedy Maize The Trump administration is working overtime to transmogrify the nation’s dirtiest fuel into what the president calls his “beautiful clean coal.” The White House has mobilized the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Tennessee Valley authority to boost its vision of restoring coal’s past glory. It isn’t working. The … More Trump administration labors to make ugly coal beautiful
By Kennedy Maize A major U.S. energy policy disconnect is developing over locating data centers to serve the promising but still infant artificial intelligence business. The federal government, driven by the Trump White House and many conventional electric utility generation and transmission companies, are boosting the nascent AI tech industry and its electricity gobbling data … More As the hyperscale data center backlash gathers momentum…
By Kennedy Maize Last month, iconic Texas-based technology giant Oracle Corp. announced a deal with California’s Bloom Energy to develop a behind-the-meter 2.45-GW artificial intelligence data center in the New Mexico desert, dubbed Project Juniper, powered by Bloom’s fuel cells. The announcement said, “This updated power design will replace Project Jupiter’s previously planned gas turbines … More Fuel cells and data centers: a natural mix?