Do several years of disastrous utility events in California suggest that the standard state regulatory model across the nation is defective? Is it the wrong approach to focus on detailed inputs to utility actions, when the utility knows far more than the regulators can ever discern? Looking at the how the California Public Utilities Commission … More California’s lesson: A new approach to utility regulation?

Worldwide spending on renewable energy is in decline, perhaps the start of a long-term trend, according to a new report from Bloomberg NEF. The report found that “global investments in solar, wind, and other clean energy sources added up to $117.8 billion during the first half of 2019, a 14% decline from the same period … More World spending on renewables slowing down

The federal government’s Renewable Fuel Standard, aka “the ethanol mandate,” is running on empty when it comes to the goals of lowering gasoline prices and reducing greenhouse gases, according to a new Government Accountability Office study. The congressional watchdog agency found that the RFS program, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department … More GAO: Renewable Fuel Standard isn’t working

In a Virginia dispute that goes back decades and has pitted state land use authority against the federal government’s control of uranium resources, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday ruled in favor of the state, which has banned uranium mining in the Old Dominion since the early 1980s. The 6-3 ruling in the case (Virginia Mining … More SCOTUS upholds Va. uranium mining ban, 6-3

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy subcommittee hearing on oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today was a yawner. That’s about what could be expected, particularly as the commission continues to be largely hamstrung by a lack of a full complement of five commissioners, and a subcommittee whose members were mostly interested in … More LaFleur highlights House FERC oversight hearing

A dispatch from the kingdom of coal: The demise of King Coal, both here and in the rest of the world, is much exaggerated. In a new report, Moody’s Investors Service says U.S. steam coal for power plants continues a general decline, but markets and prices for metallurgical coal used in making steel look stable. Overall, … More King Coal isn’t dead, here or abroad

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984 That’s the opening sentence in George Orwell’s important dystopian novel 1984, one of the most significant literary events of the 20th Century and, I would argue, particularly relevant today. June 8 is the 70th anniversary of the publication … More Orwell, D-Day, and the importance of truth and plain language

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dodged a judicial bullet this week. But the tone of the decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a natural gas pipeline case suggests that the commission may not be able to justify its controversial refusal to consider upstream and downstream greenhouse gas emissions in … More D.C. Circuit skeptical of FERC pipeline environmental reviews

Optimism about the future of electric vehicles continues. But skepticism also continues about the reality of EVs making a major dent in the sales of internal combustion engine cars and trucks in the U.S. and worldwide. Earlier this month, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, with the characteristic aura of superior wisdom for these sorts of analyses, … More Electric Vehicles: Batteries half full or half empty?

It’s time to put up a headstone at Yucca Mountain with this epitaph carved in stone: YUCCA MOUNTAIN NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY 1984-2019 R.I.P The House of Representatives’ $46 billion spending bill for the Department of Energy, released by the House Appropriations Committee this week, has no money for the long controversial Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear … More Is it R.I.P for Yucca Mountain?