Permitting

New Nuclear Plants Under Cost, Deadline Scrutiny

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The first new nuclear plants to be licensed in the US since 1978 will be under a financial and operational microscope as investors, regulators and customers watch for any delay that could add to costs or impact the planned start date.

The nuclear energy industry’s leadership gathered in New York City today for a briefing of financial analysts, but their timing had extra weight as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission met in the afternoon and approved Southern Company’s Vogtle plant project in Georgia in a four to one vote as the first new build nuclear facility in the US in more than 30 years. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 9, 2012 at 1:20 PM

Siemens & Atos join forces in areas of generation planning energy trading to optimize power gen reduce cost risk: ow.ly/8Tzdg

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Siemens & Atos join forces in areas of generation planning & energy trading to optimize power gen. & reduce cost/risk: ow.ly/8Tzdg Siemens_Energy

 /  Published February 6, 2012 at 10:30 AM

One Firm’s Infrastructure Action Plan For US Energy Sector

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Moving from rhetoric to action is challenging at the best of times for political leaders, but at times of severe budget constraints and looming contested elections the focus has to be on implementation and coordination, not piecemeal or reactionary tinkering.

That’s the message from the leaders of major consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which is pushing ahead with eight principles for getting much-needed infrastructure investments from conception to action. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 3, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Federal Leasing Slowdown Costing Western Energy Jobs

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A collapse in oil and gas leasing on federally-owned land in six Western US states is costing the US economy jobs and federal royalties as well as limiting access to domestic energy resources, a recent oil industry backed study says.

The number of new leases issued by the Bureau of Land Management is down 44% from the 2007-2008 period to the 2009-2010 period. There was a slight uptick in leasing activity in 2011, but the American Petroleum Institute, which released the study says that much of the leasing last year was double-counting and actual new leases hit a low last set in 1984. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 1, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Does the DOS Environmental Impact Statement Dismantle Obama’s Reason for Rejecting Keystone?

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In President Obama’s statement denying TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, he said, “The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment.”

The President referred to a five-page Department of State (DOS) report that echoed why he decided in November 2011 to postpone the decision until after the 2012 election. Despite a rigorous, three-year environmental review with multiple comment periods, the Department of State recommended that the current route was not satisfactory and additional review was necessary to study and reroute the pipeline around Nebraska’s Sand Hills region. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 30, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Obama Takes To Nevada And Colorado To Talk Energy, Expanding Drilling In The Gulf

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President Barack Obama will double down on his “all-of-the-above” energy strategy on Thursday when he announces the Interior Department’s new lease sale to make roughly 38 million acres available for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The announcement comes as part of the president’s post-State of the Union trip through Las Vegas and Denver, where he’ll expand on the energy blueprint he laid out in his address on Tuesday night. In his State of the Union speech, he vowed “responsible development” of domestic oil and natural gas. Speaking at a UPS refueling facility in Las Vegas, the president will detail the terms of the June 20 lease from Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which could yield up to 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

 /  Published January 26, 2012 at 2:20 PM

Obama Reignites Energy Incentives Debate At State Of The Union

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In his third state of the Union speech, President Obama kept energy as “pillar” of economic recovery and made natural gas the pivot point.

While endorsing an “all of the above” energy strategy, he added little new from the policies of the last three years, and no real surprises. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 25, 2012 at 10:45 AM

Energy Plays Key Role In Obama’s State Of The Union

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For the third year in a row energy played a central role in President Obama’s State of the Union address, with the president leaning hard this year on the twin themes of increased domestic oil and gas production and the need to invest more in renewable sources. “Right now, American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years,” said Obama. “Not only that — last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years.” Obama has indeed presided over a boom in domestic energy production since taking office. From 2008 to 2011 U.S. crude oil production has jumped 14%, going from 5.1 million barrels per day at the start of 2008 to nearly 5.8 million barrels per day currently, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

 /  Published January 25, 2012 at 9:30 AM

New England Transmission Debated As Generation Additions Continue

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New England’s policies supporting building increased renewable generation is underpinning pressure to invest in new transmission infrastructure in the region, with advocates for new power lines saying the projects will boost employment and alleviate existing high regional electricity costs.

Each of the six states in the New England region has “some form” of renewable energy portfolio standard, the organizers of the New England Clean Energy Transmission Summit held this week in Boston, said. Those state policies align with federal policies that enable strategic planning and cost-allocation of new transmission ensuring renewable generation access to power markets. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 25, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Colorado Solar Industry Faces Transition

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Is the sun setting on Colorado’s renewable energy sector? Has the wind left our sails? Can we conjure more stale metaphors for renewable energy that relate to the industry’s possible contraction? The answers are maybe, perhaps, and one emphatic yes. The last decade in Colorado has seen a trio of legislative efforts increasing renewable energy production in the state. Amendment 37, passed in 2004, originally set a quota of 10 percent green energy supply in the state by 2020. This quota was upped to 20 percent in 2007 with HB 1281, and then 30 percent with HB 1001 in 2010 (This brief history neglects finer points of the legislation, including rebate amounts and quota distinctions between Xcel and smaller energy cooperatives).

 /  Published January 24, 2012 at 9:50 AM
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