The Illinois Commerce Commission on Aug. 20 opened an inquiry to explore electricity rate design options to support transportation electrification infrastructure and gather information about the impact rate structures will have on other forms of electrification, service, and affordability. The inquiry supplements previous efforts by the commission to study electric vehicles. In 2018, the commission…...
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority on Aug. 24 announced the approval of the Just Transition Working Group and six advisory panels tasked with providing recommendations to the Climate Action Council. The council is a 22-member committee established under the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which sets aggressive goals for…...
The Montana Supreme Court on Aug. 24 ruled that state regulators unlawfully reduced the payments and contract lengths for solar projects’ power supply arrangements under the 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, or PURPA, which established requirements for utilities to purchase power from small independent generators. The decision affirms a 2019 lower court order, and…...
The Bureau of Land Management’s quarterly oil and gas lease sale in New Mexico generated net proceeds of $8.28 million, according to an Aug. 28 press release. Nearly half the revenue from the sale is allotted to the states where the oil and gas activity takes place namely, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The remainder…...
About 5 billion cubic feet per day of new natural gas pipeline capacity came online in the U.S. during the first half of 2020, according to an Aug. 24 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. At the same time an estimated 8.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of pipeline projects were canceled in…...
Exelon Generation on Aug. 26 announced that it plans to retire two nuclear plants in Illinois with a capacity of more than 4.1 gigawatts as they face revenue shortfalls due to falling energy prices and market rules that allow fossil fuel generators to underbid carbon-free resources in PJM Interconnection LLC’s capacity auction. The announcement follows…...
The Michigan Public Service Commission on August 20 authorized a settlement allowing DTE Gas to increase its revenues by $110 million, which is about 46 percent lower than the utility’s original request. The new rate, effective Oct. 1, will raise monthly residential bills for customers using 100 cubic feet of gas by about $2.97 or…...
The California Public Utilities Commission on Aug. 27 authorized a budget of $437 million to fund the installation of about 38,000 charging ports under Southern California Edison Company’s Charge Ready 2 program. The decision adopted changes that make the program more cost effective and better align with California’s electric vehicle goals than the utility’s initial…...
The twenty-fourth quarterly carbon auction held by California and Quebec sold nearly 89 percent of the carbon permits offered for current emissions, rebounding from a dip in the previous auction which sold only 37 percent, according to the results released on Aug. 25 by the California Air Resources Board. The auction generated about $474.4 million…...
Recently, state regulators have stepped up efforts to value distributed energy resources (DERs) more accurately while looking for ways to better reflect the costs they impose on the grid. Among recent actions, New York adopted a mechanism to move the market towards more cost-reflective rates, while California decided to include avoided transmission costs in the valuation, and Connecticut unveiled a study on quantifying the benefits of these resources.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs on Aug. 20 announced lease agreements with Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind to use the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal as the main staging and deployment facility for their offshore wind projects. The agreements worth over $32.5 million commit the terminal for full-time use from 2023-2027…....
North Dakota’s crude oil output fell by 41.6 percent between December 2019 and May 2020, a much larger decline than it would have been if producers ceased new drilling and allowed production from existing wells to drop naturally, according to an Aug. 20 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The decline is largely attributed…...
