There’s more trouble for carbon capture and more trouble for Southern Company, the big Atlanta-based utility holding company: South Mississippi Electric Power Association backed out of its plan to pump $600 million into the Kemper County Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project in Mississippi for a 15 percent stake. Fitch reacted quickly. Fitch will review the ratings and Outlook for… Keep reading →
The U.S. portfolio of electric power plants will continue to shift in 2015, according to a federal assessment projecting that nearly 16 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity will retire in 2015. Most of the capacity to be retired this year is coal-fired generation.
What’s going on with coal in China? Already the world’s largest consumer of the stuff, China has been expected to continue on an upward trajectory in coal use. But last year the trend line turned down – and it appears to be continuing in that direction. The figures suggest the decline in China’s coal use… Keep reading →
FirstEnergy, the giant Ohio-based company that owns power plants and transmission lines in several midwestern and northeastern states, is ready to raise electricity prices for its customers. This is in part because three of its oldest coal-fired power plants are set to close, but also because of a few bad business bets. Though finally shuttered… Keep reading →
President Barack Obama’s assertion last month that climate change will bring more asthma and worse allergies drew a skeptical response in some quarters, but it turns out the president’s signature climate solution – the Clean Power Plan – could come with significant health “co-benefits.” That’s the conclusion of a new study in the journal Nature… Keep reading →
Republicans have been pummeling President Barack Obama for waging what they call a “war on coal,” but you’ve got to wonder how politically useful that tactic is when one of the nation’s biggest corporations is suggesting that it wants nothing to do with comparatively dirty fuel. General Motors this week put out a press release boasting… Keep reading →
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’s has emerged as a central figure in the Iran nuclear negotiations with his background as a nuclear physicist making him a key player in the high-profile bilateral framework. “President Obama and aides have asked Moniz to explain the technical details of an agreement in which Iran would give up the means… Keep reading →
Last December, EPA announced its final rule regarding the management of coal combustion residuals (“CCR” a/k/a “coal ash”). This came several years after initial alternative proposals were offered for public comment, and the Agency’s subsequent review of over 450,000 written comments.
The US coal sector is in terminal decline resulting with 26 companies entering insolvency in the last three years, according to financial analysts.”A report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative found that in the past five years the US coal industry lost 76% of its value. At least 264 mines were closed between 2011 and 2013.… Keep reading →
Republican Congressmen have opened up a new line of attack on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan by drawing attention to the threat the plan could cause to manatees who enjoy the warm water discharged from one of Florida’s biggest coal fired power plants. Manatees, Florida’s state marine mammal, are gentle, slow-moving, herbivorous creatures commonly called… Keep reading →
