Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy has acknowledged that its Texas-based subsidiary Southwestern Public Service Co. likely caused the giant Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas panhandle. The conflagration erupted late last month, the largest wildfire in Lone Star State history. The fire was largely contained as of yesterday afternoon. Both the utility holding company and wildfire experts … More Wildfires’ glowing embers: Texas, Buffett, California

The U.S. nuclear industry in recent days has hit three cherries on the federal government’s money and policy slot machine. The open question is whether the largess (some might call it pork) will have the intended results: revitalizing a moribund industry by hitching its wagon to the feverish fear of climate change and long-run animosity … More Commentary: Ding. Ding. Ding

Out on the northern Nevada high desert, a little-known Houston company is developing an energy source that could revolutionize what has been long on promise but short on delivery–turning the intense heat deep below our feet into useful terrestrial heat and electricity. Geothermal energy, carbon dioxide free, 24/7. MIT Technology Review has called it “like … More Geothermal: Hot rocks rising

Two new episodes in the long-running energy soap opera called the Mountain Valley Pipeline On Feb. 13, a federal appeals court again rebuffed local opponents of the natural gas pipeline being constructed 304 miles across West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina, carrying gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. The case has been … More Mountain Valley: As the pipeline turns

Ohio utility giant American Electric Power has ousted its CEO, president, and board chair Julie Sloat after just over a year in the top job and without providing an explanation. The Columbus-based utility named Sloat president and chief financial officer in August 2022, adding that she would become CEO January 1, 2023. Joining the company … More AEP ousts CEO after a year

A federal appeals court has struck down a moratorium on new leases for mining coal on federal land that goes back to the final days of the Obama administration. The decision is unlikely to have much impact in light of the diminishing role of coal in the U.S. economy. In an unpublished decision, a three-judge … More Court ends federal coal leasing moratorium—ho,hum

By Henry Sokolski As Washington grapples with declassifying what it knows about nuclear weapons that Russia may deploy in space, there is another significant nuclear deployment that the Executive refuses to discuss at all — Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons. Washington has sat on this “worst kept secret” now for nearly six decades using a … More Guest commentary: Israel has nukes, it’s time to admit it

As the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday (Feb. 21) held oral arguments on the legality of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “good neighbor” policy to limit upwind states from polluting downwind states, two legal constructs dominated the discussion: “severability” and the court’s “emergency docket.” The case is “Ohio et al v. EPA” brought by several states and … More Supreme Court examines cross-state air pollution

After years of foot dragging, Alabama Power is taking a small step to deal with the potentially dangerous coal ash pond at one of its power plants. It’s a slow, incremental step. The Alabama Power ash ponds remain in a protracted dispute among the utility, state regulators, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Birmingham-based, … More Alabama Power makes coal ash pond movement

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday (Feb. 15) denied preliminary permits for development of pumped hydro on Navajo tribal land, announcing a policy that projects on sovereign tribal lands must have tribal support. The rejection of preliminary permits came for energy storage projects, some of which would consist of multiple components, all on Navajo land … More FERC, citing Navajo Nation sovereignty, dumps pumped storage permits