The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Sept. 28 updated the 2016 well control rule, one of the spate of safety regulations implemented in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill that spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over nearly three months. The agency said…
U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation on Sept. 28 that requires mergers or consolidations of public utilities with a value above $10 million to be first approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. For transactions valued below that threshold but above $1 million, the law requires the utilities seeking merger to notify the commission within…
U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation that will eliminate financial and technological barriers to nuclear innovation, according to a Sept. 28 press release from the U.S. Energy Department. The department said the legislation builds on the success of its Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear or GAIN initiative, which seeks to enable the industrial community…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Sept. 27 upheld New York’s zero emission credit program adopted in August 2016 to support the state’s financially struggling nuclear plants. The ruling rejects complaints that the program depresses energy and capacity prices in the wholesale power auction overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.…
The California Air Resources Board extended its low-carbon fuel standard, mandating a 20 percent cut in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2030, compared with the current requirement of 10 percent by 2020, according to the agency’s Sept. 27 press release. The requirement, “the most stringent in the nation,” aligns with the state’s 2030…
The U.S. Energy Department is providing the funding for cost-shared research and development to develop technologies that can lower the cost of capturing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, according to a Sept. 27 press release. The projects selected under the department’s “Novel and Enabling Carbon Capture Transformational Technologies” will facilitate the development of solvents…
The Bureau of Land Management on Sept. 26 authorized right-of-way grants for the Enefit American Oil Utility Corridor Project which would provide access, natural gas, electricity, and water to Enefit American Oil’s South Project while allowing transport of processed oil. The South Project comprises commercial oil shale mining operations on 7,000- acre to 9,000-acres of…
The owners of the Vogtle nuclear plant on Sept. 26 agreed to continue with the project expansion after resolving issues over budget overruns. The deal follows majority owner Southern Company’s announcement in August to raise project costs by $2.3 billion, prompting a vote on the future of the project under provisions of the joint ownership…
The U.S. Interior Department proposed to offer all available unleased areas in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing in the auction to be held in March 2019, according to a Sept. 25 press release. The auction marks the fourth offshore sale under the 2017-2022 leasing program. The last auction held in August…
The Illinois Commerce Commission announced that Commonwealth Edison Company’s customers will see $318 million in benefits as a result of a settlement concerning the allocation of costs for transmission facilities in the PJM Interconnection LLC’s footprint, according to the agency’s Sept. 25 press release. The settlement, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is a…
U.S. energy related carbon emissions in 2017 dropped 0.9 percent from the prior year and 14 percent below 2005 levels, according to a Sept. 25 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Although the gross domestic product grew by 2.3 percent from 2016 to 2017, the agency said that emissions were more than offset by…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Sept. 25 authorized SunPower Corporation to sell its membership interests in Boulder Solar III LLC to 174 Power Global Corporation and KOMIPO America Inc. The Boulder Solar project is a 125-megawatt solar photovoltaic electric power generating facility under development in Nevada. The project is expected to come online in…
