The Michigan Public Service Commission on June 30 rejected Enbridge’s request for a declaratory ruling that it has authority to replace a pipeline segment under the Straits of Mackinac under a 1953 order approving the Line 5 pipeline. The commission found that the Line 5 project differs significantly from the pipeline approved in 1953. Different…...
The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment on June 30 approved the 101-megawatt Deer River Wind Farm located in Lewis and Jefferson counties. The project is expected to generate up to $24 million in local property tax revenues over 30 years. Local governments are expected to receive up to $800,000…...
The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management on June 26 released the final environmental review for a new integrated activity plan for the 23-million acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The preferred alternative would open as much as 18.7 million acres, or about 82 percent of the reserve, to oil and gas development, undoing Obama-era protections…...
The U.S Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy on June 29 announced a request for information to support the research and development of the battery critical materials supply chain. The department seeks input from industry, academia, research laboratories, and government agencies to identify challenges and opportunities in the upstream and downstream supply…...
As states continue to reexamine net metering programs in the evolving distributed solar landscape, the industry faces a new challenge: a petition asking federal regulators to exercise jurisdiction over these state-administered programs that compensate behind-the-meter generation for grid-exported energy.
The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources on June 25 announced the expansion of the Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles, or MOR-EV, initiative to include commercial and nonprofit fleets. Since 2014, the state has dedicated more than $31 million to incentivize the purchase of over 15,000 electric vehicles. Last December, the department extended the MOR-EV…...
The U.S. Energy Department on June 26 announced a plan to invest $122 million in building coal products innovation centers through a competitive process in multiple coal producing basins. The move aims to sustain the domestic supply chain of carbon ore, rare earths and critical minerals, and produce value-added and innovative coal products to the…...
The California Air Resources Board on June 25 adopted a rule requiring a transition from diesel trucks and vans to electric trucks from 2024. The first-in-the nation standard requires all trucks sold in California to be zero emission by 2045. The rule will advance the state’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent…...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will convene a technical conference in September to consider state adoption of mechanisms to price carbon emissions in regions with commission-jurisdictional wholesale power markets, according to a June 24 notice. State-level activity on emission-trading programs and carbon pricing has been on the rise as more jurisdictions embrace policy goals to…...
The Wyoming Public Service Commission approved a contract term of 15 years for Rocky Mountain Power’s power purchase contracts with independent electricity generators under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act 1978, or PURPA. The commission denied the company’s request to reduce the contract length to seven years, finding that there is no evidence that qualifying…...
The U.S. daily natural gas delivered to facilities that produce liquefied natural gas for export fell to less than 4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by far in June, less than a half of the record 9.8 Bcf/d in late March 2020, according to a June 23 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration…....
Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak on June 22 announced the Clean Cars Nevada initiative to consider the adoption of low- and zero-emission standards for light-duty vehicles. The program will help advance the state’s goal of reducing emissions by 28 percent by 2025 and 45 percent by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. Nevada would join 14 other…...
