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A plan that will close nearly 2,000 miles of public roads that have previously been open for use by the people of Mesa County is creating a public backlash against the Grand Junction field office of the federal Bureau of Land Management. The BLM’s resource management plans (RMP) regulate the access and types of traffic allowed on roads on public lands. Road maintenance and seasonal closures are also detailed in such plans. But the most recent RMP in Mesa County indicates the BLM’s intent to limit access to public roads which have traditionally been open to motorized, horse, and foot...

EIA's most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts that the amount of electricity generation fueled by natural gas in April and May will total just 3.5% less than the projected amount of coal-fired generation. This convergence has occurred only once before, in April 2012, when natural gas fueled just 1.5% less generation than coal. Power generation from the two fuels is expected to rise at similar rates over the next couple months, and then diverge again later in the summer as demand rises and coal unit capacity utilization continues to rise. Natural gas-fired generation has been rising over the past few...

A petition to close down a coal plant from the green group listed some supporters who say they hadn’t signed on. ... three western North Carolina businesses accused the green group of listing them without permission as co-signatories on a “businesses beyond coal” campaign letter. The Sierra Club listed 80 businesses as co-signatories last October in a letter it widely publicized, calling for Duke Energy to retire its coal plant in Asheville. ... National Review reached out to the remaining 61 businesses listed in the Sierra Club letter. Though it was unable to reach all of the owners, it found...

Venezuelans are criticizing electricity rationing that government officials began carrying out this week after the country’s electrical system continued to overload because of an ongoing heat wave. Ministries and other public institutions will now work until 1:00 p.m., reducing their workday from 8 to 6 hours. Private companies have also been required to cut their electricity intake by 10 percent. The overall goal is to achieve a 20-percent reduction of country’s power consumption in order to prevent overloading the system. "We are in the presence of a significant increase in the temperature," said Jesse Chacón, the country's Energy Minister, according...

Already buffeted by widespread violence, crippling shortages, and skyrocketing inflation, Venezuelans will be confronted with a new burden in the coming weeks: nationwide electricity rationing. The government of President Nicolas Maduro said last week that a plan to ration and otherwise adjust energy usage would go into effect to address increasing demand, which has been spurred on in part by a recent rise in temperatures in the Caribbean country. The measures of the rationing plan include reducing workday length for some public officials to six hours, requesting that private firms increase their electrical efficiency, and the inspecting of factories and...

Credit: NASA Langley/David C. Bowman A team at NASA's Langley Research Center is developing a concept of a battery-powered plane that has 10 engines and can take off like a helicopter and fly efficiently like an aircraft. The prototype, called Greased Lightning or GL-10, is currently in the design and testing phase. The initial thought was to develop a 20-foot wingspan (6.1 meters) aircraft powered by hybrid diesel/electric engines, but the team started with smaller versions for testing, built by rapid prototyping. Imagine a battery-powered plane that has 10 engines and can take off like a helicopter and fly...

Engineers at the University of Maryland have created a battery that is made entirely out of one material, which can both move electricity and store it. "To my knowledge, there has never been any similar work reported," said Dr. Kang Xu of the Army Research Laboratory, a researcher only peripherally related to the study. "It could lead to revolutionary progress in area of solid state batteries." Envision an Oreo cookie. Most batteries have at either end a layer of material for the electrodes like the chocolate cookies to help move ions though the creamy frosting – the electrolyte. Chunsheng Wang,...

Can cars run on formic acid? They just might one day, after what physical chemist Georgy Filonenko discovered in his dissertation. He developed a catalyst in which hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) can form formic acid in no time, faster than had ever been measured before. And the reverse reaction is just as quick. It seems to be the start of a hydrogen battery for use in hydrogen cars of the future, for example. He received his PhD degree yesterday, cum laude. Hydrogen is one of the foremost candidates in the running towards becoming the energy carrier of the future....

Never lacking daring ideas, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is determined to jolt the electricity market. The CEO of electric car maker Tesla Motors hopes to park hundreds of millions of large, solar panel-connected batteries in homes and businesses so the world can disconnect from power plants—and he can profit. On Thursday night, before an adoring crowd and a party-like atmosphere, Musk unveiled how he intends to do it. Musk took the stage at Tesla's design studio near Los Angeles International Airport, an audience of drink-toting enthusiasts cheering him on, in a scene fitting for an audacious dreamer renowned for pursuing...

Public employees will only have to work six hours a day until further notice, and police units will be sent to inspect private businesses to ensure they only use their allotted amounts. Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza blamed the measures on climate change. ... The Venezuelan government is responsible for providing electricity in the socialist nation, and concerns that power is running out in the OPEC nation have triggered alarm that power may be next on a list of basic scarcities in Venezuela that include milk, laundry detergent, and vegetable oil. ... Vice President Arreaza also made a bizarre call...

Tesla’s announcement last week about creating a new line of batteries for use by businesses, consumers, and the electrical grid at large is a game-changer for the industry. Currently, when individuals or companies need back-up power, they usually rely on generators. Effective battery storage for large amounts of energy would be a game changer in that it would enable a separation of generation and use of energy produced through clean fuels like solar and wind power. The big problem with solar and wind right now is that the energy is only useful when it is actually produced and, because a...

A study released Tuesday by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) concludes that more time is needed for utilities to develop new generation and transmission than is allowed by the timeline for carbon pollution reductions in the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP). The draft carbon regulations aim to cut carbon emissions 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, and require steep carbon cuts from many states by 2020. According to NERC, utilities take 4-5 years to build new generation plants and 6-15 years to construct new transmission lines to support them, meaning that both the interim 2020 compliance date...

Tesla shares (TSLA) are getting a charge from a Bloomberg report that the company will unveil a home battery and a large-scale utility battery, at an event at its Hawthorne design studio next week. Bloomberg got a hold of an email from Tesla’s investor-relations chief saying the company will explain the benefits of Tesla’s solutions compared to battery options in the past. There has been speculation that Tesla will look to challenge the traditional utility power grid with home and utility batteries, and a research note from Deutsche Bank says Tesla could be at the forefront of an energy storage...

Coal-fired power generation from existing plants will increase through 2025, this according to the Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015) report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) this week. The report centers its expectations on a middle-of-the-road predictive model called the “AEO2015 Reference case”, but also compares this reference case to alternative predictive models which adjust for variables including: low and high oil prices, low and high economic growth, and high oil and gas resources. The report predicts tradeoffs between fuels used for electricity generation, primarily due to slow growth in demand, combined with rising natural gas prices, environmental...

Did Georgia just pull the plug on the electric car market? Many people are wondering after state legislators voted to eliminate a tax credit that last year helped catapult metro Atlanta to the highest U.S. market share for plug-in electric vehicles. The same bill will impose a $200 registration fee -- the nation's highest -- on noncommercial EVs. When the governor signs the bill, as expected, Georgia will go from first to worst on its support for the EV market. The electric vehicle tax credit ends June 30; the EV fee starts the next day. Local car dealers say they're...

Wind energy in Michigan is approximately two-thirds fossil fuels (predominantly natural gas) used in a less than efficient way, coupled with one-third wind. Most people are unaware of that reality and misinformation flourishes as a result. Case in point: a new study claims to provide comparisons between wind and natural gas by treating them as if they were two totally separate and distinct forms of energy generation. The University of Michigan and Lansing-based consulting firm 5 Lakes Energy are touting a joint study based on a “model” produced at the university. The stated purpose of the study is to provide...

A $1.2 billion project to run a power line from Canada to Ludlow may clear its final hurdle before the end of the year. Jeanne Elias, special counsel and case attorney to the Vermont Public Service Department, said she expects the Vermont Public Service Board to issue a Certificate of Public Good for the proposed New England Clean Power Link, or NECPL by December. The certificate would green-light a power line which would make its way through 150 miles of Vermont, much of it subterranean. Elias said the project’s tentative schedule forecasts construction commencing in 2017. She made the announcement...

Steamboat Springs — Routt County commissioners are among local government officials in Colorado who are railing against the latest plans of the state legislature to appropriate $20 million from the mineral severance tax fund to balance the 2015-16 budget. "Since I’ve been a commissioner, this is the fourth or fifth time they’ve raided the severance tax to take care of the state’s budget, and to the detriment of local governments,” Routt County Commission Chairman Doug Monger said. “If we don’t make noise about it, it will become a normal event. We have to get out there and say ‘This really...

White House, State Department Lose Power Due To Scattered Outages April 7, 2015 1:09 PM Share on email View Comments Related Tags: Power Outage, State Department, White House Latest News College CheerleadersCheerleader Roundup: College Edition Best Of Washington D.C.D.C.'s Food Court Cute AnimalsCute Animal Alert You've Earned Points for Reading!Claim points in our Reward Center, and earn more tomorrow.Claim Points WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — The White House and State Department lost power Tuesday afternoon due to scattered outages across the nation’s capital. The power went out at the White House for nearly 10 seconds while the State Department conducted its press...

The White House and State Department lost power Tuesday afternoon due to a major power outage across the nation’s capital and parts of Maryland. The power went out at the White House for nearly 10 seconds while the State Department conducted its press briefing in the dark. The Justice Department’s power also went down. The power outage stretched to the University of Maryland’s campus in College Park.