By Kennedy Maize The western electricity landscape looks like it is moving toward a long-anticipated future as a west-wide regional transmission operator. It’s led by California and the state legislature’s seminal passage in September of legislation, AB 25, that created the framework, based on the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) Western Energy Imbalance Market. According … More Western ISO finally headed toward reality?

By Kennedy Maize The Trump administration’s latest Department of Energy move to centralize and federalize the U.S. electricity system is drawing fire, including from important FERC veterans, Republicans and Democrats alike. At the end of October, DOE told the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a draft order giving FERC the ability to order … More DOE data center fast track plan draws fire

By Kennedy Maize What would a nuclear power boom to rival that of the 1970s mean for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission? Will the agency need to go on a hiring spree to cope with the onslaught of new regulatory business? Or would the Trump administration’s zeal for eliminating government jobs, and its plans for … More NRC future: growth, decline, or both?

By Henry Sokolski If growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific weren’t alarming enough, a recent round of nuclear provocations has only salted the wound. On Oct. 29, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to resume nuclear-weapons testing, taking leaders in the region by surprise. Then, on Nov. 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will follow Trump’s … More Guest Commentary: Japan should resist the temptation to go nuclear

By Kennedy Maize The nation’s largest offshore wind project, two-thirds complete off the Virginia shore with $8.2 billion spent, is facing new challenges, political and financial. In both cases, one source of the new risks is Donald Trump. The political risks are that the president may turn his irrational hatred of offshore wind to the … More Will Trump’s gale force sink the nation’s largest offshore wind project?

By Kennedy Maize Another disappointing earnings report from NuScale Power’s (NYSE:SMR) last week (Nov. 6) led to a sharp decline in the company’s stock. At the same time, another shift in the status of Fluor Corp.’s (NYSE:FLR) shares in NuScale hiked the price of the Texas engineering and construction giant’s shares.   NuScale’s third quarter … More NuScale Power’s stock shocked after bad 3rd quarter

By Kennedy Maize There’s one word that best describes what happened to the Republican Party in Tuesday’s elections across the country: “wipeout.” “From the great Atlantic Ocean to the wide Pacific shore. From the queen of flowing mountains to the southbelt by the shore,” the GOP’s electoral cannon balls rolled feebly out of the end … More GOP’s election debacle and energy implications

By Kennedy Maize Li-ion, LFP, Na-ion, graphene, lead acid, solid state, flow. Welcome to the Advanced Battery Warehouse. What started 200 years ago, using primitive electric batteries to power wooden-wheeled vehicles, now appears to be a far more mature technology that can transform how the worldwide energy system works, from cars to household electric service. … More The battery revolution in energy and electricity

By Kennedy Maize Delegates, staff, academics, activists, journalists, and miscellaneous hangers on have begun arriving in Belem, Brazil, a city of 1.4 million on the northeast coast, situated on the edge of Amazonia, the metaphorical “lungs” of the planet. They are gathering, tens of thousands, for the 30th annual gabfest of the parties to the … More COP30: fandango of feckless fantasy or significant turn of direction?

By Kennedy Maize With seed money from Wyoming, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, North Dakota’s multistate generation and transmission cooperative, is pondering a new coal-fired power plant in the Cowboy State. Under consideration is a second unit at the 483-MW Dry Fork unit near Gillette, 93% owned by Basin, with the Wyoming Municipal Power Agency owning … More Is it back to the future for Wyoming coal power?