The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on March 31 finalized fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions standards for cars and light trucks for model years 2021 to 2026. The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient, or SAFE, Vehicles Rule increases the stringency of these standards by 1.5 percent a year,…...
Offshore wind energy, which is key to realize the clean energy transition in several East Coast states, is faced with tough challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts the global supply chain, affecting project timelines. Delays have the potential to threaten power purchase contracts and federal tax credits that are crucial for project economics.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on March 27 opened a proceeding to examine whether the state can achieve its long-term clean energy and environmental goals under the current resource adequacy procurement paradigm. The commission will assess alternatives to the state participating in the regional capacity market administered by PJM Interconnection LLC as the…...
The Virginia State Corporation Commission on March 26 rejected portions of Dominion Energy Inc.’s grid transformation plan including a $752 million proposal to deploy smart meters over the next decade. The agency found that Dominion failed to justify its smart meter proposal with a well-crafted plan including rate design that would maximize the potential for…...
U.S. President Donald Trump on March 27 signed into law the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package aimed to provide financial and emergency relief to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The rescue package does not include tax credit extensions and direct pay provisions that wind and solar groups sought as…
DTE Electric Company on March 20 filed a revised integrated resource plan with the Michigan Public Service Commission incorporating changes that the agency recommended to the original plan. The new IRP includes a single pathway and eliminates the four possible scenarios in the previous plan, applies higher energy waste reduction targets, and removes unapproved supply-side…...
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities issued a report on March 20 showing that 447 megawatts of solar capacity came online in 2019, setting a new record for solar installation in a single year. This brings the state’s total capacity to 3,190 megawatts, which represents five percent of its energy needs. The previous record…
The Bureau of Land Management on March 20 released a draft environmental assessment for Yellow Pine Solar LLC‘s 500-megawatt solar generating project spanning about 3,000 acres of public land in Nevada. The review includes analysis of the proposed photovoltaic generation station and ancillary facilities including battery storage, as well as an associated substation and transmission…
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) expanded from nine to ten member states with New Jersey’s re-entry after almost a decade. Virginia’s Clean Economy Act sets the state to link with the compact in 2021, and Pennsylvania is drafting regulations in accordance with a 2019 executive order that commits the state to join the compact.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on March 20 proposed revisions to its electric transmission incentive policy to spur investment in the infrastructure needed to support the evolving generation mix, increasing number of new resources seeking transmission service, and changes in load patterns. The commission proposes a shift in its incentive analysis to grant incentives based…...
Solar and wind developers are faced with tough challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts the global supply chain, affecting project timelines. Delays have the potential to threaten power purchase contracts and federal tax credits that are crucial for project economics. The crisis has triggered an economic slowdown as governments take measures to curb the advance of…
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission issued a permit allowing Crowned Ridge Wind II LLC to build a 301-megawatt wind energy facility in Codington, Deuel, and Grant counties, according to a March 18 press release. The $425 million project consists of 132 wind turbines spanning about 70,000 acres east of Watertown. The developer has entered…...