Thinking about buying an electric car as a small step to protectng the planet against global warming? Maybe you should think again. First, the environmental advantages of cars that run entirely on electricity and not on fossil fuels may be more hype than reality, according to economist Jonathan Lesser in a report for the conservative … More Rethinking electric cars

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will launch a review its administration of the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, chairman Kevin McIntyre announced at today’s monthly open meeting. The new initiative, he said, reflects the major changes in the electricity industry in recent years. It also comes, McIntyre noted, as FERC now earlier policy reviews … More FERC to review PURPA implementation

California has too much solar-produced electricity. The California Energy Commission this month said the answer to that is to build more solar. California has a very expensive housing market. The California Energy Commission this month said the answer is to increase the cost of a new home by around $10,000. The five-member energy commission voted … More Is California Energy Commission cockamamie?

When the New Orleans city council held a public meeting last fall to get comments on a controversial $210 million power plant Entergy Corp. wants to build, some 50 demonstrators clad in orange T-shirts and carrying professionally-printed signs showed up in support. Local plant opponents also attended, but the plant supporters outnumbered them. The same … More Entergy stumbles on astroturf

For Scott Hempling, a veteran electric utility regulatory critic, recent activities suggest only a lip-service dedication to capitalism on the part of investor-owned utilities undercut by industry developments. For Branko Terzic, a former state and federal utility regulator and a consultant to investor-owned utilities, current trends suggest that IOUs are need help from regulators as … More Dueling views of electricity regulation and no-fault capitalism

Electric car maker Tesla’s river of red ink continued for the first quarter of 2018, but the losses announced today were less than some analysts expected. The troubled automaker is still bedeviled by an inability to roll out its mid-priced ($35,000) Model 3 at profitable levels, the only path to a sustainable business model. But … More Tesla hangs on in 1Q 2018 with better-than-expected results

The latest ploy the Trump administration is considering to bail out failing coal and nuclear plants in the PJM Interconnection’s competitive wholesale markets is drawing fire from the right and the left. At the behest of Akron-based FirstEnergy, the Department of Energy is reviewing a petition to employ the emergency provisions (Section 202(c)) of the … More FirstEnergy federal bailout slammed from right and left

South Carolina’s two legislative chambers are playing rate cut chicken over rolling back the consumer costs for the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project. The House voted to cut SCANA Corp.’s rates by 18%. The Senate scaled that back to 13%. The House then re-upped the cut to 18%, by a 104-7 vote. Now, as the … More S.C. nuclear snafu stumbles ahead

Some existing U.S. coal and nuclear plants have failed in competitive wholesale markets for several years, mostly for sound commercial reasons. The driving factor has been the astonishing rise of low-cost natural gas, thanks to new technologies. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have turned the tables on electric generation. State and federal subsidies for wind … More No-fault capitalism: Trump, coal, and nukes

Political heat appears to be increasing under an electric policy issue that has been simmering for several years. The issue is changes to the 1978 Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). Those who want significant changes to the venerable law describe it as “reform.” Opponents more often call it “gutting” the law. PURPA is arguably … More PURPA: Reform or wreck?