Democratic Governor Janet Mills authorized the Office of Energy to sign onto an agreement that requests the state’s utility regulator to approve Central Maine Power Company’s 1,200-megawatt transmission project, which would deliver Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts to help that state achieve its clean energy goals. Mills said that the stipulation enhances the proposed New England…
The California Public Utilities Commission has begun developing a policy framework on decarbonizing buildings as part of its ambitious goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, according to a Feb. 8 order. The Commission recognizes that the state’s ambitious 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goals cannot be achieved with 100 percent renewable energy alone since 25 percent…
The Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors on Feb. 14 approved the retirement of Paradise Unit 3 by 2020 and the Bull Run Fossil Plant by 2023, in order to better balance its generation system with changing demands. The vote reflects TVA’s commitment to replace less-efficient coal-fired plants with cleaner resources, despite President Donald Trump’s…...
The Virginia legislature approved a bill that would prohibit the governor or any state agency from participating in a regional carbon market, without a two-thirds majority vote from both the legislative chambers. The state is considering its own proposed cap-and-trade rule designed to link with the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, the nation’s…...
The compliance obligations under Ohio’s renewable portfolio standard have been shifting from electric distribution companies to competitive retail suppliers as consumers are exercising their choice of electric service providers, according to a Feb. 11 draft annual report by the Ohio Public Utilities Commission staff. Competitive suppliers were responsible for about 77 percent of Ohio’s overall…...
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management state offices generated more than $1.1 billion of revenue from oil and gas lease sales during 2018, nearly thrice the previous record of $408 million set a decade ago, according to a Feb. 6 press release. The agency’s New Mexico office held 2018’s biggest lease sale in September, earning…...
Democratic Senator Ed Markey and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a Green New Deal resolution on Feb. 7 setting out the goals and aspirations of the ambitious plan which seeks to tackle the nation’s contribution to climate change by making it carbon free over just a decade. The resolution calls for unprecedented, World War II-style mobilization of the U.S. economy…
U.S. electric power sector emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2) will remain mostly flat through 2050, assuming no changes to current laws and regulations, according to the EIA’s recently released Annual Energy Outlook 2019. Regulation has greatly contributed to the decline of pollutants like SO2 and NOx from the electric…
New York lawmakers approved a bill on Feb. 5 that would block oil and gas development off the state’s coastline. The legislation would put New York in line with California, New Jersey, and Oregon that have enacted similar measures following the Trump administration’s plan to open up vast amounts of coastal waters to drilling activities. The measure…...
The Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction unveiled legislation on Feb. 4 that would establish the Oregon Climate Action Program to place a cap on greenhouse gas emissions for entities whose annual emissions exceed 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The bill would set an annually declining emissions budget, starting in 2021 to put the…...
The Department of Energy’s Natural Gas Imports and Exports Third Quarter Report 2018 highlights all the important transactions of the precious fossil fuel from July through September last year. Total U.S. exports were 918.7 Bfc, about 13 percent higher than the previous quarter and about 24 percent higher compared to 2017. Total imports decreased by 0.1…
Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc. outlined a strategy to continue procurement of demand reduction beyond the 41 megawatts initially planned for 2019 through 2021 under its Brooklyn/Queens Demand Management, or BQDM, program, according to a Jan. 29 filing with the New York Public Service Commission. The company said the strategy, which details the program’s budget…
