The Environmental Protection Agency said it will miss by a month its own deadline to issue a regulation to minimize the impact of industrial and power plant water cooling structures on fish populations. “In spite of its best efforts, EPA will not meet the April 17 deadline, but will require an additional 29 days, i.e., until May 16, 2014, to complete inter-agency consultation with the services,” the agency told a federal court.

As proposed in 2011, the rule would require plants to slow the velocity of their intakes or find some other way to stop fish from being trapped or killed. Environmental groups had sued the EPA for not issuing the rule — required by section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act — but settled when the agency agreed to finalize it. The most recent court-approved agreement had required the agency to issue the rule by last Thursday. The EPA said the delay was caused by its consultations with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Services, who are tasked with Endangered Species Act enforcement.

Riverkeeper Inc., an alliance of environmental groups that brought the lawsuit against the EPA to force it to issue the regulation, blasted the EPA’s delay. “EPA’s breach of the legal commitment it made to issue a final 316(b) rule by April 17 is yet the latest in a long string of failures by this agency to meet its own deadlines, leaving us no choice but to return to federal court where we can seek an order compelling the rule’s issuance,” Reed Super, an attorney for the group, said last week.

More: The Hill

Keystone XL Pipeline Decision Delayed Again

The Obama administration again extended the review period on the Keystone XL pipeline, and its final decision may not come until after the Nov. 4 congressional elections. The State Department said officials need more time to review some of the 2.5 million public comments on the project and investigate the impact of a pending Nebraska lawsuit that could change the route of the pipeline. Officials there did not say when those reviews would be completed.

Supporters of the pipeline denounced the delay. “Here’s the single greatest shovel-ready project in America, one that could create thousands of jobs right away,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. “But the president simply isn’t interested. Apparently radical activists carry more weight than Americans desperate to get back on the job.”

Environmentalists called it a sign that the project will be rejected. The latest postponement “confirms, yet again, that this project is not permit-able,” said Rachel Wolf, a spokesperson for a group called the All Risk, No Reward Coalition. “This export pipeline fails the climate test, fails the jobs test, and doesn’t even have a legal route.”

More: USAToday

NRC To Increase Oversight Of Exelon’s Ginna Plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will increase its oversight of the Ginna nuclear power plant in Wayne County, N.Y., east of Rochester. The NRC had issued what is called a “white” safety finding — of low to moderate significance — having to do with flood protection at the plant and the threat to backup batteries and other emergency power sources.

Ginna owners made modifications late last year, but the NRC was unhappy with the time it took to make the fixes. “This was one of the primary areas of focus for the NRC after Fukushima back in March 2011, and basically we wanted to make sure that all of the plants were protected to the greatest degree possible, and a lot of that analysis work is still going on,” said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.

Exelon said it has faith in the actions taken. “Ginna is a robust, fortified facility designed to withstand the most severe weather related events, including the highest recorded flood levels in the area,” the company said in a statement. “This potential issue was corrected, [and] it did not affect the safe, reliable operation of the plant.”

More: WXXI

DC Court of Appeals Upholds MATS Rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week upheld a regulation that limits emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants, in a decision that affects mainly coal-fired power plants. The EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) applies to 1,400 of the country’s largest power plants and begin taking effect in 2015.

The regulations are expected to cause a wave of coal plant retirements. U.S. companies have shut or converted more than 22,000 MW of coal-fired power plants since 2009 and have plans to shut or convert more than 42,000 MW in the next decade.

More: Reuters