A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission financial audit has found Ohio-based FirstEnergy improperly accounted for many expense items, including its spending on the controversial and now cancelled legislation (HB6) to bail out two uneconomical nuclear power plants and a coal plant. As a result, the company will have to refund, by its calculation, at least $9.5… More Federal audit finds serious FirstEnergy accounting problems
Wyoming: Rock-ribbed Republican; loudly conservative; free-market advocates; pushes small government. Huh? Wyoming’s economy for the past 40 years has relied on revenues from the low-sulfur, low-BTU steam coal from the Powder River Basin (which also extends into neighboring Montana). The state benefitted enormously from the early federal clean air rules, which displaced eastern, high-BTU, high-sulfur… More Wyoming wants to force states to buy Powder River Basin coal
Fully understanding the details about what went wrong with the Texas power supply system won’t be possible for weeks, and will no doubt involve investigations from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and its private sector partner, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. But having covered the U.S. electric system as a specialized journalist for over… More Some thoughts about Texas
Georgia Power’s troubled two-unit Vogtle nuclear construction project, currently scheduled for completion of the first unit in November of 2021, is unlikely to meet that timeline, according to Engineering News-Record. Testimony filed with the Georgia Public Service Commission by its Vogtle Monitoring Group found, “Since inception of the project in 2009, all [Integrated Project Schedule] iterations… More Vogtle will miss its 2021 service date; Santee Cooper generates more controversy
The seven-member South Carolina Public Service Commission today (Dec. 14) unanimously approved the sale of the state’s flagship investor-owned utility, SCANA Corp., to Virginia-based Dominion Energy for $14 billion. The SCANA takeover is the result of the disastrous decision of the South Carolina company to build two new nuclear power plants at its existing V.C.… More SC regulators approve Dominion buyout of SCANA
At 5:30 a.m. on November 20, 1968, Consolidation Coal Company’s No. 9 mine near Farmington, W.Va., erupted with an explosion felt 12 miles away and a plume of flame and smoke that obscured vision. Ninety-nine miners were underground when the mine exploded. Twenty-one escaped; 78 died. Rescue attempts failed and Consol soon sealed the mine… More A federal success: 50 years of coal mine safety regulation
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
More troubles for the executive suite at the North American Electric Reliability Corp. On Monday, Nov. 27, Marc Sachs resigned as senior vice president and chief security officer, exactly a week after president and CEO Gerry Cauley resigned Nov. 20 following his arrest on charges of domestic violence Nov. 10. The NERC board named Charles… More NERC executive suite in turmoil