A bipartisan group of state legislators re-introduced a pair of bills aimed at getting Pennsylvania to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Christopher Rabb, a Democrat, introduced HB 1425, while Tom Killion, a Republican, is sponsoring the Senate version, SB 630. The proposals will set benchmarks for phasing out nonrenewable energy by requiring 50 percent…
The District of Columbia’s electric suppliers retired nearly 68,000 solar renewable energy credits in 2018, compared to about 31,000 last year, yet the solar requirement rose by a mere 0.17 percent and retail sales by 3 percent, according to the Public Service Commission’s annual report on compliance with the renewable energy portfolio standards. The report…
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on May 9 announced that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation established regulations requiring all the power plants in the state to meet new emission limits for carbon dioxide. No existing coal-fired sources are expected to continue beyond 2020 under the new rule, as emissions control technology needed for…
The New Hampshire legislature passed a measure on May 8 amending regulations governing the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, to be consistent with the program’s updated model rule adopted in December 2017. The nine-state compact established the nation’s first mandatory emissions trading program. The bill revises the statewide budget allowance,…
The United States produced a record amount of energy from various sources in 2018, reaching 96 quadrillion British thermal units, 8 percent higher than in the previous year, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest Monthly Energy Review. While fossil fuels like crude oil and natural gas saw increases of 17 and 12 percent respectively…
California’s large investor-owned utilities procured about 38 percent of their total generation from renewable resources, which accounted for nearly 42 percent of their total generation costs in 2018, according to a May 8 report from the California Public Utilities Commission. Wind and solar dominated utility power contracts, with the average prices for contracts dropping to…
Tucson Electric Power Company entered into an agreement to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market from April 2022, according to a May 8 news release from the California Independent System Operator Corporation. Tucson estimates the participation to result in about $13 million in annual energy cost savings for its customers by expanding real-time access to…
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas on May 8 released its seasonal assessment report for the upcoming summer, which forecasts a peak demand of about 74,850 megawatts, which is 1,300 megawatts higher than the all-time record set last July. The grid operator identified a potential need for an energy emergency alert status, in order to…
Democratic Governor Katherine Brown signed legislation on May 6 which clarifies that renewable energy certificates may be issued for the generation of thermal energy at a facility that generates electricity using biomass, subject to the same requirements as all other certificates. The legislation, introduced at the governor’s request, account for the fact that some biomass…
The California Public Utilities Commission approved a preferred system portfolio that calls for 12 gigawatts of new renewables and storage by 2030, including 1.7 gigawatts of geothermal, according to a May 1 decision. The agency said that geothermal is valuable for balancing the intermittency of wind and solar resources. The plan will require “concrete procurement…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on May 1 denied Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s requests for rehearing of the agency’s order asserting concurrent jurisdiction with bankruptcy courts over wholesale contracts that the utility may seek to reject through its Chapter 11 filing. While FERC’s role in evaluating rates and terms of power contracts is to protect…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that the construction of Venture Global LNG Inc.’s Plaquemines LNG, a natural gas liquefaction and export terminal in Louisiana, and the associated pipeline projects would result in some adverse environmental impacts, which would be reduced to less-than-significant levels, according to a May 3 notice. The Plaquemines terminal consists of…