Amid a wave of opposition in the Senate, the Trump administration says it will withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, in September. But Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who named Pendley to the role of acting BLM director in 2019, says he will stay in the … More Commentary: William Perry Pendley has no place in government
Iowa’s elderly Duane Arnold nuclear power plant, scheduled to go out of service on Oct. 30, won’t restart after the region’s 100+ mph derecho wind storm severely damage the plant’s closed-cycle cooling system. A spokesman for Florida-based NextEra Energy, the current owner of the 46-year-old plant, said, “After conducting a complete assessment of the damage … More Duane Arnold’s fate was blowin’ in the wind
California faces a challenging trifecta of troubles: wildfires driven by a blitz of lightning strikes, a heat wave of massive proportions causing rolling electricity blackouts, and a corona virus resurgence. How is the Golden State responding? With recriminations, blame shifting, and head-scratching. It reminds me of a 1950s satirical ditty sung most effectively by the … More California’s sizzling blame game
Hydrogen – the most plentiful element on earth – is getting a lot of play as an energy panacea in recent weeks, the solution to global warming. It’s being touted as the ideal fuel for internal combustion engines, electric generation, a salvation for uneconomic nuclear plants, and a way to replace natural gas for home … More Hydrogen: Hope or hype?
A consumer backlash against the highly-touted small nuclear reactors (SMR) has developed in Utah. This week, the Utah Taxpayers Association, a nearly 100-year-old conservative governmental watchdog organization in the state, warned Utah municipal utilities members of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), to bailout of the Oregon-based NuScale Power SMR project before a September deadline … More Utah’s SMR backlash
Is solar thermal electric generation dead? The Department of Energy last week settled with bankrupt Tonopah Solar Energy in Nevada in a deal that has to be blessed by bankruptcy court to recover $200 million of a $1 billion project that got a $737 million loan from the agency in 2011. The Crescent Dunes plant, … More Crescent Dunes: An epitaph for solar thermal?
The Ohio House of Representatives Thursday unanimously ousted 61-year-old Republican Speaker Larry Householder, charged by federal authorities as a racketeer in a $61 million bribery scandal involving a $1.3 billion state bailout of two FirstEnergy nuclear plants (and several coal-fired plants in Ohio and Indiana). The legislators then elected veteran Republican Rep. Bob Cupp to … More Householder removed as Ohio speaker, Murray Energy revealed as a contributor to the scheme
The White House announced today that it intends to nominate Virginia State Corporation Commission chair Mark Christie, and clean energy advocate Allison Clements to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Christie, who is a non-partisan SCC chairman, would fill the Republican seat being vacated by Bernard McNamee, whose term expired June 30. He has remained on … More Trump to name Christie, Clements to FERC
Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine, reversing course, has called on the Ohio legislature to repeal House Bill 6, the bribery-tainted measure that provides a $1.3 billion subsidy to two failing FirstEnergy nuclear power plants. DeWine, who signed the measure a year ago, said he continues to support the goal of the nuclear bailout. DeWine said, … More Ohio’s DeWine reverses course on nuclear bailout
The unfolding tale of widespread utility corruption has expanded again. The Justice Department announced yesterday that former SCANA Corp. executive vice president, Stephen A. Byrne, 60, “pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.” U.S. Attorney Peter McCoy, Jr. said the charges come from SCANA’s (now Dominion Energy) failed attempt … More Utility corruption cascade continues