The Quad Report

The hydropower industry and several U.S. environmental groups have joined forces to promote electricity produced by hydroelectric dams as a tool in the fight against global warming. The alliance is unusual in that the environmental movement in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s grew out of opposition to hydropower development. Brokered by California-based Stanford … More Enviros and hydro industry form unusual coalition

Is it time to plan fusion regulations? Is commercial fusion energy so much closer to reality than most believe that a need to start thinking about how to regulate the technology and structure the business enterprise is required? That was the assertion behind Tuesday’s public zoom meeting among the Department of Energy, the U.S. Nuclear … More Is it time to plan fusion regulations?

Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, which owns the GE’s boiling water reactor franchise, has pulled the plug on plans to build a new nuke station on the coast of North Wales, citing the estimated cost of $20.5 billion. Tokyo-based Hatachi’s UK firm Horizon Nuclear Power, originally a German E.ON and RWE venture, had been trying to develop … More UK’s staggering nuclear power program suffers another blow

Dissenting from last week’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on distributed energy resources, Commissioner James Danly said the regulators went “too far in declaring the extent of its own jurisdiction and because the commission should not encourage resource development by fiat.” Danly, who was FERC general counsel before appointed to a Republican vacancy, argued that FERC … More FERC’s Danly on DER rule: “imprudent.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday (Sept. 17) ruled that aggregators of distributed energy resources can compete in competitive wholesale electricity markets. The ruling, Order 2222, was not a surprise What was surprising was the nature of the 2-1 vote approving the new rule. Chairman Neil Chatterjee, a Republican Trump administration appointee, and Commissioner Richard … More Strangely bipartisan, FERC approves rule on distributed energy resources

Moves to curb nuclear power political corruption in the Midwest are in motion. The outcomes are unclear so far. In Illinois, dominant utility Commonwealth Edison, an Exelon subsidiary, has admitted to federal charges that it bribed important state legislators, including the Democratic speaker of the House, and agreed to a $200 million fine. The admission … More Illinois, Ohio begin to address nuke bribery scandals

The NuScale small modular reactor project has received good news and bad in recent days, and the path ahead remains unclear. First the good news. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission August 28 approved the “final safety evaluation report” for the 50-MW reactor design by Portland, Ore.-based NuScale Power LLC. In a press release, the NRC … More NuScale SMR: Good news and bad

Amid a wave of opposition in the Senate, the Trump administration says it will withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, in September. But Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who named Pendley to the role of acting BLM director in 2019, says he will stay in the … More Commentary: William Perry Pendley has no place in government

Iowa’s elderly Duane Arnold nuclear power plant, scheduled to go out of service on Oct. 30, won’t restart after the region’s 100+ mph derecho wind storm severely damage the plant’s closed-cycle cooling system. A spokesman for Florida-based NextEra Energy, the current owner of the 46-year-old plant, said, “After conducting a complete assessment of the damage … More Duane Arnold’s fate was blowin’ in the wind

California faces a challenging trifecta of troubles: wildfires driven by a blitz of lightning strikes, a heat wave of massive proportions causing rolling electricity blackouts, and a corona virus resurgence. How is the Golden State responding? With recriminations, blame shifting, and head-scratching. It reminds me of a 1950s satirical ditty sung most effectively by the … More California’s sizzling blame game