The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week gave its OK to a Texas liquefied natural gas export terminal to be located near Freeport, Texas. The Freeport Liquefaction Project would be built on the site of an existing import terminal. The decision adopts a recommendation by the commission’s environmental staff requiring the company follow more than 80 environmental remediation plans. The U.S. Department of Energy has conditionally approved the Freeport project already.
This is the third LNG export project to receive FERC approval. Ten LNG export projects have applications pending before the commission.
The Energy Department also approved an LNG terminal to be built near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. The authorization — conditional upon final approval from FERC — will allow the terminal to export LNG to countries without a free trade agreement with the U.S., such as Japan, China and India. Other local, state and federal approvals are needed before the project can break ground.
More: FERC; The Oregonian
DOE Renewable Official Cites Dominion’s Wind Plans
David Danielson, the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy, pointed to Dominion Resources’ offshore turbine project as a sign of things to come. “This will be Virginia pioneering something nationally,” he said during a local Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce luncheon over the weekend.
Dominion is gathering offshore wind power data with two 550-foot tall turbines, funded in part with a $47 million federal grant.
More: Virginian-Pilot
Xcel Energy Asks Fed Rail Board for Help
Xcel Energy CEO Ben Fowke has appealed to the to help unclog rail deliveries of coal, saying carrier BNSF Railway’s slowed deliveries threaten to shut down a 2,500-MW plant.
The Sherco plant, about 45 miles northwest of Minneapolis, provides about 25% of the power for Xcel customers in a five-state region. Fowke said the plant is short about 810,000 tons of coal.
Other utilities in North Dakota, Arkansas and Kansas have reported similar problems. La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative said it could run out of coal at one of its plants by January if BNSF doesn’t speed up its deliveries. Some critics say the shortage is because rail carriers have experienced a huge rise in crude oil shipments from northern regions, but BNSF denies it. The carrier said it has added more equipment and personnel to its lines and is working through the backlog.
More:La Crosse Tribune
NRC Eyes Action at Peach Bottom
A security violation seen during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection at Exelon’s Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Delta, Pa., has the commission considering remedial action for the plant operators. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the violation was due to a flaw in the plant’s security program, but for security reasons he wouldn’t elaborate.
Letters from the NRC to Exelon Nuclear identified the problem as a piece of security equipment at the plant’s dry cask storage area, an exterior site where spent fuel is stored in concrete vaults. A plant spokeswoman said that the problem has since been fixed.
More: York Daily Record
Obama Picks 2 for Open Slots at NRC
President Obama nominated two energy experts to fill slots that will soon be open at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jeff Baran, aide to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), was named to replace Bill Magwood, who has accepted a position with the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency. Baran would finish Magwood’s term, which expires June 30, 2015.
Former NRC general counsel Stephen Burns would replace George Apostolakis, who left June 30 after the White House did not re-nominate him. If confirmed by the Senate, Burns’ term would run through June 30, 2019.
More: The Hill; The White House
Governors Join Miners in Pro-Coal Rally
West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin joined miners from his state, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in a “Rally to Support American Energy” last week. The rally was held in Pittsburgh, one of the sites of a public hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission rule.
“Today’s rally gives us an opportunity to come together and explain the EPA should be working with us toward energy independence, not mandating unilateral restrictions on our nation’s energy production,” Tomblin said. “That’s why our state is joining the fight against the EPA’s proposed rules to establish unreasonable restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions.”
More: The Logan Banner
W.Va., Ohio, Ky. Sue over EPA Carbon Rule
Twelve states, including West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, filed suit Friday to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule on carbon emissions from power plants. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the suit was an effort to prevent regulation “that will have devastating effects on West Virginia’s jobs and its economy.”
The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The other plaintiffs are Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming. The states said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits the EPA from issuing power-plant rules under one section of the Clean Air Act, known as 111(d), when it has already regulated them under a separate section.
David Doniger, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the suit “laughable.” Lawyer Scott Segal, an opponent of the rule, said the suit was likely the first of several challenges. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one gets kicked to the Supreme Court,” he said. (See related story, FERC Split on Reliability Analysis on EPA Rule.)
More: The New York Times; Bloomberg