By Kennedy Maize The U.S. Department of Energy has won a green light from the Environmental Protection Agency for construction of new space for nuclear waste storage at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico. WIPP is the government’s site for burying transuranic waste from the agency’s nuclear weapons program. WIPP began operations … More EPA okays DOE expansion of New Mexico nuclear waste project

By Kennedy Maize In his first seven months in office, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has been betting on the weather using other people’s money without their consent. And losing. Last week (Aug. 20), Wright doubled down, ordering a Midwestern coal-fired power plant that he forced Consumers Energy to keep running in May on a speculative … More Chris Wright’s “Can’t Lose Casino” at work

By Kennedy Maize President Trump’s visceral dislike of “green” energy– particularly windmills, among other quirks he shares with Don Quixote – could backfire, raising consumer electric prices, according to two new studies from the Washington-based economic and energy think tank Resources for the Future. In “Hidden Costs of Repealing EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standards: Consequences for the … More RFF dissects Trump administration energy phobias and fallacies

By Kennedy Maize Could the failed V.C. Summer nuclear power plant project to add two 1,000-MW reactors to an existing site, with heavy federal subsidies, come back to life? The operating 966-MW Virgil C. Summer nuclear power plant, a Westinghouse pressurized water reactor that went into service on Jan. 1, 1984 at a cost (in … More Is it V.C. Summer time in South Carolina?

By Henry Sokolski and Sharon Squassoni In an apparent gesture of moderation, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, recently announced Tehran would renew talks with Washington. Gharibabadi made one seemingly reasonable condition: that the United States had to recognize Iran’s rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This is code for Iran insisting on its NPT “right” … More Guest Commentary: NPT does not guarantee a right to make nuclear fuel

By Kennedy Maize President Trump came into office mindlessly mouthing a fatuous slogan from prior Republican leaders, designed to win support from the oil industry: “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Casting a deep look at Trump’s meretricious meme, veteran oil industry consultant Michael Eisenband says, “Interestingly, to date, such efforts to spur more drilling have fallen on … More “Drill, Baby, Drill” a policy dry hole, an empty slogan

By Kennedy Maize The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has applied a controversial May 29 Supreme Court environmental decision, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gas pipeline case that has national and international aspects. In an August 1 ruling, Sierra Club v. FERC, the appeals … More Citing Seven County, DC court upholds FERC on gas pipeline challenge

By Kennedy Maize The U.S. Department of Energy has signed a deal with a mysterious startup company with no track record, directed by ultraright billionaire techbro Peter Thiel, to lease 100 acres of the agency’s mammoth (3,556 acres), elderly, and moribund uranium enrichment plant near Paducah, K.Y. for undisclosed terms. The new lessee is San … More DOE-General Matter Paducah enrichment lease: more or less than meets the eye?

By Kennedy Maize Texas-based engineering, energy, and construction giant Fluor Corp. (NYSE:FLR) announced dismal 2nd quarter earnings last week (Aug.1), with only its holdings of the soaring stock of  Oregon-based small modular reactor firm NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) propping up its financials.  Revenue fell 6%, adjusted earnings dipped 42% to $96 million, profits plunged 60%. Oilprice.com … More NuScale and Fluor: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

By Kennedy Maize Carbon dioxide, the simple and ubiquitous chemical that many see as the scourge of the earth driving global warming, may also be a salvation that turns intermittent wind and solar electricity into a round-the-clock asset. Late last month (July 25), Google announced a deal with Energy Dome, a company based in Milan, … More The once and future tale of long-duration energy storage