A major coal strip mine in Montana has suffered two recent legal blows. The Montana Supreme Court Monday (Nov. 27) halted expansion of Denver-based Westmoreland Mining’s Rosebud mine, which supplies the two-unit, 1,480-MW Colstrip coal-fired power plant. Three days earlier, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected a Westmoreland appeal of… More Montana Coal Mine Suffers Two Big Legal Defeats
Small modular nuclear reactor developer NuScale Power, rocked by collapse of its only project and hammered by a freefall in its share prices, is facing another major threat. Boston-based law firm Block & Leviton announced Monday (Nov. 27) that it has filed a “class-action shareholder lawsuit in federal court, alleging the company ‘made materially false… More NuScale Investor Lawsuit: Small Reactors, Big Problems
The annual international greenwashing lollapalooza, COP28, kicks off in Dubai tomorrow. That’s Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates, a leading oil and gas producer. Indeed, the UAE holds the world’s sixth largest natural gas reserves and the seventh largest oil reserves. So a major fossil energy power will be hosting COP28, the 28th meeting… More Commentary: Defund the COPs
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a plan for Pacific Gas & Electric to bury some 1,230 miles of high-voltage electric transmission lines and use covered conductors on another 778 miles over the next four years at a cost of $4.78 billion. The San Francisco-based utility had proposed to bury 2,000 miles of transmission… More Electric Utility Merry-Go-Round: PG&E, Consumers, NYISO, AEP
Another small advanced reactor has seen a major contract in jeopardy, casting more doubt on the prospects for the highly-touted future of small modular nuclear reactors. The online news service Alaska Beacon reports that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has revoked an August Air Force preliminary decision to install an experimental Oklo micro reactor at… More Oklo-Air Force SMR Preliminary Contract Revoked
Hoping to give a kick to greater solar generation, electric storage, and electric transmission, the Biden administration’s Department of Energy last Thursday (Nov. 16) proposed new and streamlined “categorical exclusions” to required environmental reviews mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act. On Friday (Nov. 17) the Treasury Department and its Internal Revenue Service announced liberalized… More Two Biden Moves to Aid Renewables
Loading up consumers’ electricity bills with socially desirable but costly items, as California and other states are wont to do, has unanticipated and undesirable consequences, says prominent energy economist Severin Borenstein of Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas. In a recent blog, he says that “the problem is that the electricity price you face – if… More Hass’s Borenstein Pans California Electric Rate Plan
Natural gas infrastructure – pipelines, producing wells, and generating plants – were the chief culprits in Winter Storm Elliott last Christmas “that contributed to power outages for millions of electricity customers in the Eastern half of the country,” the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. found in… More FERC Winter Storm Report: Congress Needs to Act
Dominion Energy’s latest integrated resource plan (IRP) for its Virginia electric utility raises more questions than it answers, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Veteran analyst Dennis Wamsted recommends that the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the state’s utility regulator, reject the plan unless the Richmond-based company makes… More IEEFA Pans Dominion Resource Plan
NuScale Power [NYSE:SMR], the nation’s most mature purveyor of small modular nuclear power plants, has lost its only valid customer, raising doubts about the Oregon company’s continued existence. The company announced Wednesday (Nov. 8) that Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) has cancelled its contract for the “Carbon Free Power Project” after being unable to… More Is NuScale Headed for Collapse?