The Quad Report

An internal U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission working group has found some weaknesses in the agency’s practices on how nuclear power plants’ decommissioning is financed, a growing issue as more plants retire due to financial circumstances. It’s a multi-billion dollar issue. In an April 29 report, the working group says two new approaches to how to … More NRC staff group has some qualms about recent decommissioning financial models

While the nuclear industry and the Trump administration continue to hype the promise of small nuclear reactors as the key to revitalizing the moribund U.S. nuclear industry, an important federal regulator has waved a yellow flag. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Jeff Baran, the only Democrat on the commission (the NRC has three Republican members and … More Optimism and pessimism surround small modular nuclear reactors

In a sane world no electric company would propose a 40% rate increase. That Dominion Energy has just done this for Virginia shows how crazy net zero carbon laws really are. Dominion loves all these enormous expenses, because the more they spend the more they make. Rate payers should revolt. The legislature has in effect … More Commentary: Dominion and crazy net zero laws

Is the Neil Chatterjee, the ebullient Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission contemplating a run for the GOP nomination for governor in Virginia in a 2021 election? He appears to be making tentative steps in that direction, but is leaving lots of ways to exit the room. On May 16, Chatterjee posted on … More Is FERC’s Chatterjee running for Va. governor?

A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit has given the environmental Protect Agency a mixed decision on its 2018 rejection of petitions from several states calling for tighter pollution limits from upwind coal-fired power plants in other states. The May 19 opinion was unanimous. The court … More Court gives EPA a mixed decision on whether it is a good neighbor

S. David Freeman, an icon of energy policy and politics for seven decades, died in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Reston, Va., May 12 of heart disease. He was working on a critical analysis of recent Tennessee Valley Authority operations when he had to go to the hospital just days before his death. He was … More Dave Freeman, a titan in U.S. energy history, dead at 94

Kansas City-based Evergy, a utility holding company created just a year ago by the merger of Westar Energy and Great Plains Energy, parent of Kansas City Power & Light, may be headed to the exit. Bloomberg reported this week that the company has multiple suitors. The most likely to succeed is Ohio-based giant American Electric … More Is Evergy headed to Never-Never Land?

President Trump May 1 issued an executive order concerning cyber security and the U.S. bulk electric supply system, which has gotten little attention in the general media. The order, published in the May 4 Federal Register, found that “foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploring vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system, which provides the … More Trump targets foreign electric equipment suppliers

Is the bell tolling [thanks to Carolyn Elefant for the literary allusion to John Donn an English cleric and poet, 1572-1631*], for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s fait accompli use of tolling orders? The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals took up a challenge, in an unusual en banc hearing this week, to FERC’s long-standing practice … More FERC tolling orders under court and congressional review

As the coronavirus pandemic has hammered demand for electricity across the country, the impact is likely to be greater for investor-owned utilities than for the public power sector, according to Moody’s Investor Service. In  recent report, the bond rating agency said its outlook for the public sector “remains stable because we expect the sector to … More Coronavirus has disparate effects on utilities