Despite the government shutdown and budgetary stalemate in Washington, most federal energy work goes on. It’s business as usual. At the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency issued a statement, saying, “If Congress has not passed a new funding resolution by Sunday, January 21, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will utilize its prior year … More Energy agency shutdowns less than meets the eye
Just days after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected the Trump administration’s assault on competitive, wholesale electric markets, two of those markets announced major steps toward addressing how to improve their approaches to electric capacity. The timing was coincidental. The PJM Interconnection and ISO-New England unveiled new details of plans they have been working on … More ISOs act on state subsidies, fuel resilience
Supply chain security and football dominated Thursday’s (Jan.18) Federal Energy Regulatory Commission meeting. The commission unanimously approved a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish new mandatory reliability standards offered by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) to boost security in the supply chain for the nation’s bulk electric system. NERC proposed the standards in … More Supply chain security and football at FERC
Here’s another blow to the nuclear energy industry, facing economic, policy and political headwinds in Washington and in competitive electric markets for years. Florida’s NextEra Energy and New Orleans-based Entergy, important utility owners of multiple nuclear power plants, have dropped their membership in the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s Washington lobbying group. Maria Korsnick, NEI … More NextEra, Entergy exit Washington nuclear energy lobby
On Jan. 11, Luminant Generation shut down the 1,100-MW Sandow coal-fired power plant near Austin, Texas. On Jan. 12, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission turned down a request from Ohio’s FirstEnergy to transfer the 1,300-MW Pleasants Power Station from the company’s merchant generating arm to its regulated utilities Monm Power and Potomac Edison. Both actions … More Trump’s year in coal, not so good
South Carolina faces a chaotic financial and political environment as a result of the entirely predictable collapse of the V.C. Summer nuclear project. The latest turn in the tangled tale is that a new vulture has appeared circling the carcass of the two failed 1000-MW Westinghouse AP 1000 units, and the operating 966-MW Westinghouse PWR, … More Utility vultures circle the V.C. Summer nuclear carcass
The recent two-week cold wave that gripped much of the U.S. (now mercifully over) had nothing to do with current claims about climate change, according to an international group called the World Weather Attribution. The group of weather analysts said, “We do not find any evidence for an intensification of these types of cold waves … More Cold wave not a result of climate change
The news media has been saturated with stories about Bitcoin, mostly by folks who simply don’t get it. Bitcoin is confounding conventional ideas of currency and value. In the meantime, Bitcoin continues to make financial speculators, large and small, massive profits, while generating enormous media hype and false analogies to the tulip bubble of 1637. … More Forget Bitcoin, the real story is blockchain
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Jan. 8 gave a thumbs down to the proposal by the Trump administration and Energy Secretary Rick Perry for special treatment of nuclear and coal generation in federally-regulated wholesale electric markets. FERC terminated the rulemaking initiated by Perry (RM18-1-000) Sept. 29 on grid resilience and reliability. In its 31-page order … More FERC says ‘nope’ to Perry NOPR
Anxiously awaiting the Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle for which you plunked down $1000 19 months ago to get in the queue for delivery of the more “affordable” of the company’s trendy vehicles? Don’t hold your breath. Nor should the 600,000 others who bought the Tesla promises for what appears to be a phantom vehicle. … More More tears for Tesla