A series of bills which sought to tackle, monitor or challenge the issue climate change failed to pass the Republican-controlled legislature in Montana before it adjourned on April 25. Introduced by representative Nary Dunwell, a Democrat, HB 193 would establish a carbon tax and create ways to distribute the revenue from it. The bill would require…
The South Carolina legislature on May 9 passed a measure that will eliminate the 2 percent cap on net metering for rooftop solar customers until a successor program is in place. The bill directs the Public Service Commission to open a generic docket by January 1, 2020 to investigate and determine the costs and benefits…
The District of Columbia’s electric suppliers retired nearly 68,000 solar renewable energy credits in 2018, compared to about 31,000 last year, yet the solar requirement rose by a mere 0.17 percent and retail sales by 3 percent, according to the Public Service Commission’s annual report on compliance with the renewable energy portfolio standards. The report…
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo on May 9 announced that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation established regulations requiring all the power plants in the state to meet new emission limits for carbon dioxide. No existing coal-fired sources are expected to continue beyond 2020 under the new rule, as emissions control technology needed for…
The New Hampshire legislature passed a measure on May 8 amending regulations governing the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, to be consistent with the program’s updated model rule adopted in December 2017. The nine-state compact established the nation’s first mandatory emissions trading program. The bill revises the statewide budget allowance,…
California’s large investor-owned utilities procured about 38 percent of their total generation from renewable resources, which accounted for nearly 42 percent of their total generation costs in 2018, according to a May 8 report from the California Public Utilities Commission. Wind and solar dominated utility power contracts, with the average prices for contracts dropping to…
Tucson Electric Power Company entered into an agreement to join the Western Energy Imbalance Market from April 2022, according to a May 8 news release from the California Independent System Operator Corporation. Tucson estimates the participation to result in about $13 million in annual energy cost savings for its customers by expanding real-time access to…
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas on May 8 released its seasonal assessment report for the upcoming summer, which forecasts a peak demand of about 74,850 megawatts, which is 1,300 megawatts higher than the all-time record set last July. The grid operator identified a potential need for an energy emergency alert status, in order to…
Democratic Governor Katherine Brown signed legislation on May 6 which clarifies that renewable energy certificates may be issued for the generation of thermal energy at a facility that generates electricity using biomass, subject to the same requirements as all other certificates. The legislation, introduced at the governor’s request, account for the fact that some biomass…
More than half of U.S. states with competitive retail energy markets face proposals for stricter oversight rules from lawmakers, including measures to phase out the industry altogether, as efforts mount to put in place more consumer protections. Just five months into most states’ legislative sessions, over two dozen proposals have emerged to toughen rules around billing and marketing practices, licensing and registration and contractual terms.
The California Public Utilities Commission approved a preferred system portfolio that calls for 12 gigawatts of new renewables and storage by 2030, including 1.7 gigawatts of geothermal, according to a May 1 decision. The agency said that geothermal is valuable for balancing the intermittency of wind and solar resources. The plan will require “concrete procurement…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on May 1 denied Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s requests for rehearing of the agency’s order asserting concurrent jurisdiction with bankruptcy courts over wholesale contracts that the utility may seek to reject through its Chapter 11 filing. While FERC’s role in evaluating rates and terms of power contracts is to protect…
