Dominion Energy Inc. and SCANA Corporation on Oct. 4 submitted an agreement to the North Carolina Utilities Commission detailing customer protection measures to advance their merger deal. Under the settlement, SCANA-owned Public Service Company of North Carolina Inc., a gas distribution company, would refund $3.75 million of its 2017 revenues, raise its charitable contributions in…
The state of Michigan and Canadian company Enbridge Inc. signed an agreement under which the company would replace the Line 5 petroleum pipeline segment that crosses the Straits of Mackinac with a multi-utility tunnel beneath the Straits, according to an Oct. 3 press release from the Michigan Governor’s office. Enbridge agreed to bear the costs…
Uranium purchases by U.S. commercial nuclear power plants totaled 43 million pounds of triuranium octoxide last year, 15 percent lower than 2016 and the lowest since 1998, according to an Oct. 3 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Triuranium octoxide, called yellow cake, represents the first step in nuclear fuel production. The agency attributed…
The Maine Public Utilities Commission opened an investigation on Oct. 3 to determine the impact of certain aspects of the federal tax law on Emera Maine’s revenue requirements including excess deferred income taxes, savings associated with the time period from Jan. 1 to June. 30, and whether these savings can be used to offset storm…
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved a settlement that will lower residential bills for American Electric Power Company Inc.’s customers by $3.65 per month as a result of reconciling rates to pass on savings from the federal tax law that slashed the federal income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, according to…
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission approved changes to Avista Corporation’s annual rate adjustments that will lower residential electric bills by $4.85 per month, according to the agency’s Oct. 2 press release. The fixed cost adjustment, a mechanism that allows customers to receive a rebate when the utility’s revenue surpasses costs and incur a surcharge when…
The U.S. Department of Energy published a final environmental assessment on Oct. 2 for Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation’s project Icebreaker, a freshwater offshore wind demonstration project located in Lake Erie, near Cleveland, Ohio. The 20.7-megawatt project is being developed by Fred. Olsen Renewables, a Norwegian company, and the nonprofit Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation…
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission established requirements governing the services of community solar companies – entities other than electric utilities – based on guidelines for other regulated industries, according to the agency’s Oct. 2 press release. The rules create consumer protection measures including written permission to release private consumer information, escrow accounts to refund…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Oct. 2 ordered another halt to construction activity on all portions of the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline. The court ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers had instituted inadequate requirements for how the pipeline should cross streams in West Virginia, just a few weeks…
Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, released Virginia’s new energy plan which provides a strategic vision for the commonwealth’s energy policy over the next 10 years. The plan is the implementation strategy of the Grid Transformation and Security Act (Senate Bill 966), signed into law earlier this year. Among other things, the legislation includes 3,000 megawatts…
PJM Interconnection LLC on Oct. 2 unveiled a proposal addressing a June 29 directive from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revamp the capacity market rules to address price distortion as the participation of sources receiving out-of-market state revenues continues to grow. The plan proposes an expanded minimum offer price rule or MOPR that would…
U.S. crude oil exports are growing and reaching an increasing number destinations since the removal of the export ban in December 2015. Exports almost doubled from 2016 to 2017, thanks to growing U.S. production, expansions in pipeline and export infrastructure, and a wider discount of the domestic crude oil prices to international prices. U.S. production surpassed that of Russia in June and August, for the first time since 1999, after beating Saudi Arabia in February. Several pro-oil policies implemented recently by the Trump Administration seek to continue the bullish trend.
