The Quad Report

Facing a partial revolt among its customers on the basis of increasing costs, Oregon-based NuScale Power (owned by construction giant Fluor Corp.) has announced a 25% uprating of its still hypothetical small modular reactor design. The power upgrade, based entirely on what NuScale said was advanced testing and modeling, increased the power of its tiny … More NuScale uprates its SMR capacity, generating skepticism

Among the difficult tasks in removing and storing carbon dioxide in order to reduce global warming is how to validate, value, and count reductions and storage from various, non-central places, such as landowners and non-energy businesses. Texas-based Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy says it has come up with a nationwide protocol for storing … More Baker Institute offers national carbon storage protocol

What to expect from a Biden administration when it comes to energy? It’s mostly about climate policy, but also about energy politics. From the start, reflecting Democratic orthodoxy, Biden pledged to a transition to an electric grid powered by 100% renewable power generation by 2030, and zero US greenhouse emissions by 2050. Those are ambitious … More Biden and energy, an uncertain slate

The While House on Thursday (Nov. 5) abruptly demoted Neil Chatterjee as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, replacing him with Republican commissioner James Danly. The surprise move appears to have been a response to the fact that Chatterjee departed from Republican energy orthodoxy in two recent cases, siding with Democratic FERC member Richard … More Trump administration switches leadership at FERC

Facing a growing Ohio nuclear bribery and racketeering scandal, Akron-based utility giant FirstEnergy has fired its long-time CEO. Last Thursday (Oct 29), the multi-billion dollar company issued a press release saying the board has terminated Chuck Jones, CEO since 2015 and a company employee since 1978, according to Akron Beacon Journal. Jones, 63, is an … More Amid scandal, FirstEnergy fires CEO

Despite some progress, and a positive agenda for eliminating global subsidies for fossil fuels, “Significant barriers prevent the full phasing out of subsidies and rationalization of energy prices across the G20,” according to new research from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. A team led by Baker Institute fellow Jim Krane looked at what … More Baker Institute: Reform global fossil fuel subsidies

The NuScale small modular nuclear reactor project, bleeding customers, is facing existential challenges. The problem is economic, not technical. NuScale’s SMR, has taken a series of blows recently, despite support from the U.S. Department of Energy. The project, set to be built on DOE land at the Idaho National Laboratory, is losing significant portions of … More More UAMPS cities consider leaving the NuScale SMR project

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what state imports the most electricity of all?” “Master, the answer is California.” The Energy Information Administration, in an April 2019 daily brief, laid out the top five U.S. importers of electricity and the top five exporters. It doesn’t appear that EIA has updated that information, but it’s unlikely that … More California tops the list of electricity importers

The U.S. Department of Energy has committed another $1.36 billion to the NuScale Power nuclear small modular reactor project (SMR), on top of some $281 million DOE has already committed to the project, the only U.S. SMR still standing. The money will go, over 10 years and conditioned on congressional appropriations, to Salt Lake City … More DOE doles out $1.36 billion over 10 years to western SMR project

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today took a step toward advancing technology-neutral carbon pricing by states rather than the current practice of subsidizing particularly low-carbon electricity generation. FERC issued a proposed policy statement that says it has authority under part 5 of the Federal Power Act to review wholesale market rules that incorporate state carbon … More FERC proposes a carbon pricing policy statement