By Kennedy Maize The annual United Nations sponsored gigantic gabfest on global warming is peeking above the horizon. The 31st “Conference of the Parties” to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, aka COP31, is scheduled to kick off in Antalya, Turkey, on November 9 and run through November 20. Ministerial-level pre-COP meetings start today … More The next UN climate change conference is on the way
By Kennedy Maize New controversies have added to the swirl surrounding the nation’s oldest and largest regional independent operator of the high-voltage electric transmission system, the PJM Interconnection. PJM controls high-voltage electric transmission in 13 largely mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia, a total of about 67 million customers. The RTO’s most recent capacity … More FERC slams PJM emergency auction; PJM committee shuts out states
By Kennedy Maize While President Trump’s quixotic efforts to reverse the decline on what he calls his “beautiful clean coal” has failed, a pernicious aspect of that industry has increased: black lung. Last month, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine published a new study from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and … More Coal miner disease surges in Trump administration
By Kennedy Maize Two Federal courts have upended more of the nefarious acts of the Trump administration’s energy and environmental policy gurus — Dr. Arbitrary and Capt. Capricious — and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. Just days apart, federal judges in D.C. and Rhode Island have reversed a move by Environmental Protection Agency Director … More Two federal courts upend EPA cut of Biden solar energy grants
By Kennedy Maize Something positive has happened for the U.S. coal business in Wyoming. It has nothing to do with the Trump administration’s feckless attempts to boost what the President calls his “beautiful clean coal,” prompting eye-rolling outside 1600 Pa. Ave. and beyond. In a pilot project, Peabody Energy, the Union Pacific railroad, and Mexico’s … More A bit of good news for a declining U.S. coal industry
By Kennedy Maize September has been the cruelest month when it comes to the highly hyped, long anticipated U.S. “nuclear renaissance.” On July 8, New Jersey based Holtec Nuclear Corp. dropped a 400-page document on the doorstep of Washington’s Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking approval to sell common stock to the public. The planned “Initial … More U.S. “nuclear renaissance” ups and downs
By Kennedy Maize Has the U.S. got it wrong in the way we finance the poles and wires that bring power to our communities? Veteran energy economist Severin Borenstein, faculty director of the UC Berkeley’s Haas Energy Institute (and also a member of the California Independent System Operator governing board) says the answer is yes. … More What’s wrong with how we pay for poles and wires?
By Kennedy Maize Battery energy storage, barely on the electric industry radar screen a decade ago, is transforming the industry in the U.S. and around the world, providing a means for “intermittent” generation — primarily solar — to offer low-cost power around the clock, as needed. Advocates of the radioactive and fossilized electric systems of … More How solar and batteries are transforming electric systems worldwide
By Kennedy Maize Michigan regulators have granted Consumers Energy a two-month delay in dealing with its controversial plan to sell 13 small and elderly hydroelectric plants to a Maryland-based private equity firm. The Jackson, Mich., investor-owned utility last week (Sept. 8) asked the Michigan Public Service Commission to remove a decision on the company’s unusual … More Michigan’s complex and controversial hydropower deal faces more delay
By Kennedy Maize The administration’s unstated but operationally obvious policy of trying to prevent any U.S. coal-fired power plant from closing during Trump’s final term has suffered a major blow. In a scathing rebuke to the Trump administration’s coal-centric energy policy, a federal appeals court in Washington on Friday (Sept. 11) said the Department of … More Appeals court overturns DOE order keeping coal plants running