While the nuclear industry and the Trump administration continue to hype the promise of small nuclear reactors as the key to revitalizing the moribund U.S. nuclear industry, an important federal regulator has waved a yellow flag. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Jeff Baran, the only Democrat on the commission (the NRC has three Republican members and… More Optimism and pessimism surround small modular nuclear reactors

In a sane world no electric company would propose a 40% rate increase. That Dominion Energy has just done this for Virginia shows how crazy net zero carbon laws really are. Dominion loves all these enormous expenses, because the more they spend the more they make. Rate payers should revolt. The legislature has in effect… More Commentary: Dominion and crazy net zero laws

Is the Neil Chatterjee, the ebullient Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission contemplating a run for the GOP nomination for governor in Virginia in a 2021 election? He appears to be making tentative steps in that direction, but is leaving lots of ways to exit the room. On May 16, Chatterjee posted on… More Is FERC’s Chatterjee running for Va. governor?

A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit has given the environmental Protect Agency a mixed decision on its 2018 rejection of petitions from several states calling for tighter pollution limits from upwind coal-fired power plants in other states. The May 19 opinion was unanimous. The court… More Court gives EPA a mixed decision on whether it is a good neighbor

S. David Freeman, an icon of energy policy and politics for seven decades, died in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Reston, Va., May 12 of heart disease. He was working on a critical analysis of recent Tennessee Valley Authority operations when he had to go to the hospital just days before his death. He was… More Dave Freeman, a titan in U.S. energy history, dead at 94

Kansas City-based Evergy, a utility holding company created just a year ago by the merger of Westar Energy and Great Plains Energy, parent of Kansas City Power & Light, may be headed to the exit. Bloomberg reported this week that the company has multiple suitors. The most likely to succeed is Ohio-based giant American Electric… More Is Evergy headed to Never-Never Land?

President Trump May 1 issued an executive order concerning cyber security and the U.S. bulk electric supply system, which has gotten little attention in the general media. The order, published in the May 4 Federal Register, found that “foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploring vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system, which provides the… More Trump targets foreign electric equipment suppliers