The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Sep. 14 announced it has accepted 307 valid high bids from lease sale 257 in the Gulf of Mexico totalling about $190 million. The sale, held in November 2021, offered about 80 million acres, but only 1.7 million were leased. A January 2022 decision by the District Court…...
The U.S. Energy Department on Sep. 13 released a study evaluating the benefits and challenges associated with a coal-to-nuclear, or C2N, transition in the U.S. The transition could increase nuclear capacity to over 350 gigawatts, according to the report. By comparison, the existing nuclear power fleet has a capacity of 95 gigawatts and provides half…...
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has sent a letter to the U.S. Energy Department, in support of Holtec International’s application for a federal grant under the Civil Nuclear Credit, or CNC program, to save the Palisades Nuclear Facility in Southwest Michigan. Governor Whitmer noted that keeping Palisades operational is critical for the state’s competitiveness and future…...
The Bureau of Land Management on Sept. 9 announced the approval of two segments of the Gateway West Transmission line in Wyoming. The project is a part of PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion, a multi-year plan to add about 2,000 miles of new transmission across the West. The lines would help integrate up to 765…...
Utility resource plans continue to manifest the changing power generation mix as more states pursue zero-carbon goals. The shift drives the need for innovative policy initiatives that optimize renewable energy sources and enhance grid reliability.
The Michigan Public Service Commission on Sept. 8 issued an order aimed to improve reliability in the electric distribution system and advance efforts on customer data and privacy issues. The move is part of the MI Power Grid initiative, a multi-year stakeholder initiative launched in 2019 to maximize the transition to clean and distributed energy…...
The U.S. Energy Department announced on Sep. 8 a new objective to make enhanced geothermal systems, or EGS, an extensive renewable energy alternative in the U.S. by reducing its expense by 90 percent to $45 per megawatt hour by 2035. As it stands, there are five terawatts of heat resources that exist in the U.S,…...
The U.S. Energy Department on Sep. 7 released a comprehensive roadmap identifying four key pathways – energy efficiency, electrification, use of low-carbon energy resources, and carbon capture – to decarbonize the industrial sector. The roadmap encourages the use of nuclear energy for heat and electricity, renewables, clean hydrogen, and biofuels. The report underscores the importance…...
The Southwest Power Pool announced on Sep. 6, 2022 that several entities in Arizona have pledged to support the next stage of the Markets + development. Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Arizona Public Service Company, Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power join seven other organizations that earlier pledged to support market development. Markets+ is a…...
Across the U.S., policy makers, regulators, and utilities are increasingly viewing energy storage as imperative to enable a transition to greater use of renewable energy, electrify buildings and transportation, and enhance grid reliability.
