Margaret Ryan

 

Posts by Margaret Ryan

Former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta moderates as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and US Energy Secretary Steven Chu deliver remarks on the state of energy, February 28, 2012 during the US Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, near Washington, DC.

We can dream it – so why can’t we make it? Keep reading →


There will be no “Who Killed the Electric Car? – Part two,” asserts Atul Kapadia, Chairman/CEO of Envia Systems.

Kapadia said he’s confident electric vehicles will conquer the consumer market this time around because his Newark, California company has been able to nearly triple the energy density of a typical lithium-ion battery. Independent testing has just confirmed the Envia battery performed in the range of 378-418 watt-hours per kilogram, he says. Current batteries operate at about 140 Wh/kg. Keep reading →

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivers remarks on the state of energy February 28, 2012 during the US Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland near Washington, DC. Gates was joined by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees energy following cell phones and “going viral” worldwide if the costs of advanced batteries teamed with efficient solar panels can be reduced enough. Keep reading →


We’re from the government and we’re here to listen.

That was the opening message from top Department of Energy officials at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy Innovation Summit in Washington, DC. The conference, being headlined Feb. 28-29 by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and former president Bill Clinton, is drawing more than 2,400 participants from the worlds of science, engineering, energy and venture capital. Keep reading →


The best way to get $6 natural gas is to have everyone plan on $3 gas.

That was a sentiment heard repeatedly last week, during the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the Department of Energy’s National Electricity Forum in Washington, DC earlier this month. Keep reading →


The US energy system will be transformed beyond recognition in the next quarter century, but the only certainties are that no one knows what it will look like and it will cost a lot of money.

Electricity’s future is about “disruptive technologies,” speakers including Secretary of Energy Steven Chu told the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the Department of Energy’s National Electricity Forum Feb. 5-9 in Washington DC, and the power industry needs “partnerships” with state regulators to invest in the uncertain new era. Keep reading →


Stan Wise, Chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, welcomed today’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission vote as bringing “certainty” to a project that is “$2 billion in the ground and $13 billion to go.”

The project structure Georgia Power and its parent, Southern Company, have set up, with Shaw as constructor and Westinghouse as nuclear vendor under contracts specifying schedule and budget, is vital to ensuring there are no cost overruns as there were in the 1980s when Georgia Power built Vogtle-1 and -2, he said. Keep reading →


Electricity regulators from across the US insisted this week that the Environmental Protection Agency is underestimating the time they’ll need to meet EPA’s newest air rules, and they want EPA to lay out standards now that will guarantee five years’ compliance time and insulate them from civil liability.

EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standard gives generators three years from its publication date to comply, but allows state regulators to grant a fourth year and EPA to issue an administrative order allowing a fifth year in limited circumstances. The rule was approved but hasn’t been legally published yet. Keep reading →


Will financial system regulatory reforms make energy price hedging costly – or impossible?

That was the question experts grappled with – and disagreed over – at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) meeting in Washington, DC this week. Keep reading →


Presidents don’t usually cut ribbons at gas station openings, but the January opening of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) truck refueling stop on the busy I-15 corridor in Las Vegas was different enough to draw President Obama.

The station was the final one needed so LNG-powered semis could make the run from the port of Los Angeles all the way to Salt Lake City. Instead of diesel made from imported crude, Obama said, the trucks can be fueled with domestic natural gas. Keep reading →

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