The Department of Energy says coal stockpiles at power plants around the country are lower than normal at this time of year, and that plant operators are scrambling to obtain deliveries for winter.
The Energy Information Administration said substantial draw-down during last winter, combined with challenges getting deliveries over rail routes congested with shipments of grain and petroleum products, is leaving some operators nervous about getting enough for this heating season.
“Issues with delivery by rail are making it more difficult to ship larger volumes of coal and rebuild stockpiles at coal-fired power plants,” the EIA said. At the end of August, 23% of coal plants had less than 30 days’ supply, compared to 13% last year.
More: The Hill; Energy Information Administration
LaFleur Says FERC will not be Part of EPA Rulemaking
Federal Energy Regulatory Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said her agency won’t be overly involved in discussions about the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules on emissions. “I don’t see a role for FERC in telling EPA what to write in the rule,” she said.
“We should have a reliability consideration of some kind in the Clean Power Plan,” she said. “Protecting reliability isn’t optional — the lights are going to stay on — so that that should somehow be built into the process seems to make sense.”
More: Roll Call
TVA Executive is Highest Paid Fed Employee, and Getting a Raise
The federal government’s highest paid employee just got a raise.
Tennessee Valley Authority increased the salary of its chief executive, Bill Johnson, from $950,000 to $995,000. His total compensation package, nearly $6 million last year, could increase to as much as $7 million next year.
Some critics decried the compensation, with a spokesman for Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) calling it “ridiculous.” But TVA Board Chairman Joe Ritch defended Johnson’s pay package and said it is in line with compensation for comparable utility executives.
“We could go get someone for much less,” Ritch said. “But in my view, we are still underpaying our CEO.” The agency, with 12,000 employees, is heavily indebted, and Johnson, a former Duke Energy executive, is heading up a team that is aiming at cutting operating costs by $500 million by the end of next year.
More: Nashville Public Radio; Times Free Press
NRC Increases Oversight at Exelon’s Peach Bottom Plant
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued Exelon’s Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station an “escalated enforcement action” after observing a security violation during an NRC inspection in May.
An inspection found a problem with an electronic security device at the dry cask storage facility, the NRC said. Exelon fixed the problem, the details of which were not disclosed. Exelon was not fined, but the commission “will be looking at doing a fairly extensive inspection … next year to look at their dry cask storage problem,” according to an NRC spokesman.
The violation is the latest NRC enforcement escalation taken against Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear operator. The NRC ordered heightened inspections at Peach Bottom after security guards were caught sleeping in 2007. In June it cited security problems at Exelon’s Limerick Generating Station, and the agency issued a “white” finding against its Calvert Cliffs plant after an instrumentation malfunction was discovered in March.
More: York Daily Record
Former NRC Chairman Selected for Duke Energy Board of Directors
Richard Meserve, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has been elected to Duke Energy’s board of directors.
He will become the 16th member of the Duke board, pending approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He also sits on the board of directors at Pacific Gas & Electric. Meserve left the NRC in 1999 and became chairman of the Carnegie Institution for Science.
“Richard Meserve’s extensive experience in science and environmental issues makes him a strong addition to Duke Energy’s board,” Duke Chairman Ann Gray said.