The Maryland Public Service Commission has taken action against the retail energy supplier Smart One Energy LCC for enrolling customers without their consent, a practice known as ‘slamming’ and other violations of state law, according to an August 2 press release. The Commission suspended Smart One’s 2011 license to operate as a natural gas supplier in…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on July 30 proposed changes to remove restrictions from a 2015 rule, which limited coal ash use to 12,400 tons per site. The proposal is the agency’s latest effort to weaken the the Obama-era rule governing the disposal of coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal-fired power plants. EPA is…
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on July 31 announced the launch of a 15-year modernization and digitization program to extend the life of the Niagara Power Project, the largest source of zero-carbon electricity in the state. The program centers on the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, a 2.4-gigawatt hydroelectric plant, which began operating in 1961. The…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 1 proposed a rule to simplify the New Source Review program, which governs emission permits for building new or significantly retrofitted industrial facilities including power plants. The proposed rule clarifies that both projected emissions increases and decreases from a project can be considered during the first step of…
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed a measure on Aug. 1 requiring the levelized price of offshore wind contracts resulting from subsequent solicitations to be lower than the initial procurement if the price is adjusted for federal tax credits, inflation, and incentives. The legislation takes into account the decline of federal tax credits in…
Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, released a report on Aug. 1 showing that Massachusetts electric customers who switched to a competitive electric supplier paid about $76 million more on their bills from July 2017 to June 2018 than they would have if they remained with their utilities. Healey underscored the need for legislation to…
The U.S. Energy Department authorized Kinder Morgan Inc. to export liquefied natural gas equivalent to up to 1.53 billion cubic feet per day from the proposed Gulf LNG Liquefaction Project, which will be built at the site of an existing import terminal in Mississippi, according to a July 31 press release. The export permit comes…
The Western Energy Imbalance market generated about $86 million in savings in the second quarter of this year, with total benefits reaching about $736 million since its launch in November 2014, according to a July 31 press release from the California Independent System Operator Corporation. The market helps displace less-clean energy supplies with surplus renewable…
The Maine Public Utilities Commission on July 31 implemented changes to reinstate net metering, following legislation enacted in April that eliminated the gross metering policy, which was adopted in 2017. The 2017 rule required that the total or gross production of the net-metered facility be measured using a second meter as opposed to the prior…
Ameren Missouri, a subsidiary of Ameren Corporation, announced on July 25 that it no longer plans to acquire a 157-megawatt wind facility in northwest Missouri as the transmission upgrades required to accommodate the project would lead to “unacceptably high costs.” Ameren said it has mutually agreed with EDF Renewables Inc. to cancel the development of…
The Kentucky Public Service Commission opened a docket on July 30 to implement legislation enacted in March that redefined net metering by directing state regulators to set the compensation rate for solar customers through a ratemaking process. Under the law, retail electric suppliers are entitled to recover the costs incurred to serve customer-generators, including fixed…
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on July 26 vacated a permit granted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for Dominion Energy to construct the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline in areas inhabited by threatened or endangered species. The court found that the agency “fast-tracked” its decision and appears to have lost sight of…
