Utah. Gov. Spencer Cox last month (Mar. 21) signed legislation to keep the giant coal-fired Intermountain Power Plant operating in the western part of the Beehive State. The Intermountain Power Authority, the public power system that owns the 1,900-MW, two-unit generator, plans to shut it down next year. The legislation may run afoul of federal… More The coal pile: Utah, Tennessee, Texas
The Department of Energy’s award of a $45 billion, 10-15-year contract for cleaning up the massive amount of noxious liquid radioactive and chemical wastes at the closed Hanford, Wash., nuclear weapons site, a residue of the World War II project to develop the atomic bomb, is back in court. The Tri-City Herald reports, “The losing… More Hanford nuke waste’s Jarndyce v Jarndyce*
In a case that could be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans late last month (Mar. 27) extended its August, 2023 ban of a Texas above-ground spent nuclear fuel storage facility to nearby New Mexico, where Holtec International also has a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for… More Court that nixed Texas nuke waste license kills New Mexico site
New England’s final coal-fired power plant is scheduled to shut down by June 2028 in an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and after a long-running dispute with New Hampshire environmentalists. Granite Shore Power, which operates peaking and intermittent power generation in the ISO-New England regional power grid, announced last week (Mar. 27) that… More New England goes coal free
A federal judge in Washington last month (Mar. 22) put on hold a 2022 Biden administration giant oil and gas lease sale covering some 128,000 acres of federal land, mostly in Wyoming. The sale consisted of federal acreage in six parcels: Wyoming, 119,564 acres; Montana and the Dakotas, 3,406 acres; Nevada, 2,560 acres; Colorado, 2,444… More Judge halts BLM Wyoming oil and gas lease sale
Have investor-owned electric utilities outlived their usefulness? Many in the public power sector have long answered a rousing “Yes,” but the idea has long been anathema outside the world of munis and co-ops. Now two veteran economic analysts who have long studied the electric system are suggesting that private-sector electric companies may be large, clumsy,… More Are investor-owned electric utilities a mistake?
Birth? Despite the desperate dreams of some for a tripling of worldwide nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a rebirth is drawing skepticism. In the aftermath of last year’s COP28 22 of the world’s nuclear power countries declared that goal. Following up on that aspirational event, the International Atomic Energy Agency organized the first-ever “Nuclear Energy… More Advanced nuclear life cycle: Birth? Death? Burial?
As the July 1 date for California’s revolutionary new electric rate structure – which includes a graduated income tax in addition to traditional volumetric rates – approaches, a group of Democratic lawmakers are trying to reverse course. On Feb. 12, 20 California Assembly Democrats led by Rebecca Bauer-Kahan introduced AB 1999, aimed at repealing AB… More Calif. utility graduated income tax rate plan under fire
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday (Mar. 21) opened an investigation into a practice of interstate natural gas pipelines to bundle essential gas pipeline capacity contracts with less-desirable, non-contiguous capacity, which might unfairly increase gas prices to consumers. In June 2022, the American Gas Association (AGA), the American Public Gas Association (APGA), the Process Gas… More FERC to examine gas pipeline rates, clarify electric grid queues, hold hands with states
New Mexico’s Supreme Court on Monday (Mar. 18) approved the state’s nascent community solar law under attack from the state’s three investor-owned utilities. The court upheld 2022 regulations that the state’s Public Regulation Commission (PRC) put in place to implement a 2021 law requiring the distribution utilities to buy electricity generated by solar arrays serving… More N.M. Supreme Court backs community solar law