Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday expressed doubt about whether the Obama administration had the authority to issue a regulation aimed at encouraging efficiency in the electricity market by having electrical grid operators pay users to reduce consumption at peak times. The court heard oral arguments in an appeal filed by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking to reverse a May 2014 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that threw out the rule. The case pits the government's energy regulator against power companies that are fighting a regulation...

The owners of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth have announced that they will close the plant by June 2019. Entergy Corp. said Tuesday it is closing the only nuclear power plant in Massachusetts because of "poor market conditions, reduced revenues and increased operational costs."... ...The plant needs millions of dollars in safety improvements. The plant was relicensed in 2012 for 20 years....

A US realtor has announced plans to create a fleet of hybrid-electric buildings powered by battery energy storage systems from Tesla Energy. California-based Irvine Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with microgrid firm Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) to install the battery systems at each building. The batteries will be charged during non-peak hours and will be used for on-site power during peak daytime hours or in the event of a power failure, Irvine Company said. The project’s first phase is planned to include up to 24 office buildings in the city of Irvine, and is expected to reduce the...

From the Washington Post:The next time you flush in the nation’s capital, you might consider this: You — or, more precisely, whatever you have flushed — will help generate clean energy. D.C. Water, which also treats sewage from much of the Maryland and Northern Virginia suburbs, recently became the first utility in North America to use a Norwegian thermal hydrolysis system to convert the sludge left over from treated sewage into electricity. Yes, to put it bluntly, the city’s sewage treatment plant is turning poop into power. It's actually a pretty interesting system, which you can see here.I'm reminded of...

The amount of electricity generated from natural gas surpassed the share of coal-fired production in July in the U.S. for the second time. The first time was for the month of April, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration. The EIA reported Wednesday that the share of electricity coming from natural gas-fired power plants hit 35 percent in July. It was 34.9 percent from coal plants. The shift comes as the ongoing domestic shale boom produces lots of natural gas at relatively cheap prices. At the same time, few new coal plants are being built nationally because of increasing federal regulations...

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed an ambitious bill on Wednesday to combat climate change by increasing the state’s renewable electricity use to 50 percent and doubling energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2030. Brown approved the measure after losing a political battle against oil interests as he also tried to cut petroleum use by half in the state. […] Many moderate Democrats were concerned that the petroleum mandate would hurt California’s working-class residents. The lawmakers sought greater oversight of state regulators, but Brown refused to give up what he viewed as executive authority. …

Most U.S. households can expect lower heating expenditures this winter (October through March) compared with the past two winters. In most regions, the decline in expenditures is attributed to the combination of warmer weather and lower fuel prices. According to EIA's Winter Fuels Outlook, average household expenditures for homes heating primarily with natural gas will total $578 this winter, a $64 decline from last winter's average. Homes primarily using propane are expected to spend $1,437 this winter ($322 less). Homes heating primarily with heating oil are expected to spend $1,392 ($459 less). Homes heating primarily with electric heat are expected...

City-parish president candidates Joel Robideaux and Dee Stanley navigated questions on coal-generated power, the disruption an elevated interstate might cause in Lafayette and whether the city has too many traffic signals — all posed at a Thursday evening forum sponsored by the local chapter of the Sierra Club. In a campaign season where the candidates have often found themselves repeatedly addressing the same issues in the string of debates and forums leading up to the Oct. 24 election, Stanley and Robideaux covered some new ground at the environmental group’s forum at the Lafayette Public Library downtown. Robideaux, a longtime state...

Bowie Resource Partners plans to lay off nearly 100 people at its Bowie #2 Mine near Paonia in the latest setback to coal employment in the North Fork Valley. The company said Tuesday that it anticipates laying off 78 workers and 19 contractors from the mine, where 181 full-time employees and 19 contractors work now. ... it is continuing to evaluate the market for the mine’s coal after losing a contract to sell to the Tennessee Valley Authority a year ago. The loss of that contract caused Bowie to eliminate about 150 jobs at that time. Bowie operates three underground...

The Interior Department said Tuesday that the greater sage grouse, a ground-dwelling bird whose vast range spans 11 Western states, does not need federal protections ... The fight over whether to list the bird as endangered or threatened recalled the battle over the spotted owl 25 years ago, where federal protection greatly impeded the logging economy. ... could help defuse a potential political liability for Democrats heading into the 2016 election; ... House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop said Tuesday's announcement was a "cynical ploy" intended to mask the fact that the Obama administration has imposed limits on development...

Daniel GrossSeptember 21, 2015 In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, the mighty state of Texas was asleep. The honky-tonks in Austin were shuttered, the air-conditioned office towers of Houston were powered down, and the wind whistled through the dogwood trees and live oaks on the gracious lawns of Preston Hollow. Out in the desolate flats of West Texas, the same wind was turning hundreds of wind turbines, producing tons of electricity at a time when comparatively little supply was needed. And then a very strange thing happened: The so-called spot price of electricity in Texas fell toward...

Wind power was so plentiful in Texas that producers sold it at a negative price. What? Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, the mighty state of Texas was asleep. The honky-tonks in Austin were shuttered, the air-conditioned office towers of Houston were powered down, and the wind whistled through the dogwood trees and live oaks on the gracious lawns of Preston Hollow. Out in the desolate flats of West Texas, the same wind was turning hundreds of wind turbines, producing tons of electricity at a time when comparatively little supply was needed....

The ongoing California Valley fire sweeping across communities has destroyed or badly damaged five of Calpine’s power plants that part of the company’s large geothermal complex. The wildfire has taken out several of the 14 geothermal power plants in the complex known as The Geysers, said Calpine Corp. spokesman Brett Kerr, but some of the remaining plants are still contributing electricity to the northern California region. The cooling towers at five of the plants are damaged or destroyed, Kerr said, but the steam turbines are unharmed, which should allow for quicker repairs and replacements. “We are confident we will have...

A second northwestern Colorado coal mine will undergo a review of the mine's environmental impact following an agreement reached by the federal government, the mine's owners and WildEarth Guardians.. The agreement between the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM), Trapper Mining Inc. and WildEarth Guardians was filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Denver. The agreement gives the federal government until the end of April to complete a new review of the mine’s operations. ... Our miners must be allowed to keep working to supply Craig Station with the coal that’s needed to supply the grid...

The union era's death knell sounded in Kentucky on New Year's Eve, when Patriot Coal announced the closing of its Highland Mine. The underground mine in western Kentucky employed about 400 hourly workers represented by the United Mine Workers of America. ... Union membership remains substantial in West Virginia, with more than 30,000 members, largely because that state wasn't affected by the environmental regulations on high-sulfur coal that essentially halted mining in western Kentucky in the 1990s. Smith said those western Kentucky mine shutdowns led to the loss of about 20,000 union members in two years.

Comments by Hawaii Governor David Ige this week has left Hawaiian Electric in a quandary regarding its plan to burn regasified LNG shipped from Canada in its oil-fired power plants, a source at the utility said Friday. "We're in a bit of a stew at the moment," the source, who asked not to be identified, said. Ige previously supported using LNG as a transitional fuel as the state moved to 100% renewable generation by 2045. "When it was first proposed, I was willing to support it as a transitional fuel because it had some clear advantages for Hawaii," Ige said...

An Inspector General of the Department of Energy report that picked over the bones of the Solyndra green energy fiasco placed most of the blame on Solyndra executives for losing more than $500 million in taxpayer money. But a close reading shows DOE made plenty of mistakes as well. The report authored by DOE Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman came just short of calling Solyndra’s highest officials liars, saying their actions during the loan process were “at best, reckless and irresponsible or, at worst, an orchestrated effort to knowingly and intentionally deceive and mislead the Department.” While the 13-page report...

Dive Brief: With a 100% renewable goal now on the table and oil prices falling, Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) has revealed he opposes plans to import liquefied natural gas as a bridge fuel to cleaner and less expensive power. At a business and policy conference this week in Honolulu, Ige, a keynote speaker, said the state does not need LNG and should be moving forward on its renewable goals instead. Both Hawaiian Electric (HECO) and Hawaii Gas have floated plans to construct import terminals, with gas deliveries beginning to reach the state in 2019. HECO has pledged to push...

Southern Company isn’t alone in spending billions to position itself for the natural gas future. One of the largest companies that owns utilities in the U.S., Southern Company, announced a big deal this week that highlights just how aggressively power firms are looking to boost their natural gas power resources at the expense of the declining coal industry. On Monday, Southern Company SO 2.61% said it plans to buy natural-gas distributor AGL Resources GAS -0.08% for $8 billion in cash. The deal, which is for $12 billion but includes $4 billion in debt, offers AGL shareholders a 38% premium over...

Exelon said three of its nuclear power plants did not clear the PJM capacity auction for the 2018-19 planning year. The Quad Cities nuclear plant in Illinois, Oyster Creek in New Jersey, and Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania will not receive capacity revenue from this auction, according to The Wall Street Journal. PJM said it would increase payments to power generators by 37 percent beginning in June 2018, increasing to $164.77 per megawatt per day. The increase is an almost $45 jump over the previous amount reached in auction last year. Power producers bid for long-term contracts...