Free Republic

If you ask the people who run America's electric utilities what keeps them up at night, a surprising number will say solar power. Specifically, rooftop solar. That seems bizarre at first. Solar power provides just 0.4 percent of electricity in the United States — a minuscule amount. Why would anyone care? But utilities see things differently. As solar technology gets dramatically cheaper, tens of thousands of Americans are putting photovoltaic panels up on their roofs, generating their own power. At the same time, 43 states and Washington DC have "net metering" laws that allow solar-powered households to sell their excess...

President Bush doesn't talk about new-source review very often. In fact, he has mentioned it in a speech to the public only once, in remarks he delivered on Sept. 15, 2003, to a cheering crowd of power-plant workers and executives in Monroe, Mich., about 35 miles south of Detroit. It was an ideal audience for his chosen subject. New-source review, or N.S.R., involves an obscure and complex set of environmental rules and regulations that most Americans have never heard of, but to people who work in the power industry, few subjects are more crucial. Advertisement The Monroe plant, which is...

<p>California's effort to slash billions from $40 billion in long-term electricity contracts shifts gears today, as federal regulators end informal settlement talks and begin a litigation process to resolve the dispute.</p> <p>The bottom line for state consumers, say experts, is that relief from California's commitment to expensive power purchases for the next 20 years is now likely to take longer, if it comes at all.</p> <p>Despite reporting progress yesterday toward revised agreements, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission administrative judge overseeing the case said he would take the first formal steps in a regulatory trial today.</p>