Duke Energy is facing opposition to plans to dispose of coal ash in abandoned clay pits in two North Carolina counties. Commissioners in Chatham County passed a resolution against the disposal plan in December, and Lee County commissioners did the same thing last week.
Duke, which has committed to cleaning up coal ash dumps and ponds at four retired generating stations within five years, says storing the ash in the abandoned surface mines is an environmentally responsible and safe plan. It says the landfills would be lined and capped. “This is a very industry-tested, safe application of how to dispose of this material,” said Duke spokesman Jeff Brooks.
Environmentalists are skeptical. “It’s not a matter of ‘if’ it will leak; it’s a matter of ‘when,’” said Therese Vick of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
More: Fayetteville Observer
FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse Nuke Generates $1 Billion for Ohio
The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant generates about $1 billion annually for the Ohio economy, according to a study by the Nuclear Energy Institute.
Richard Myers, the NEI’s vice president for policy development, said FirstEnergy commissioned the organization to produce the report in anticipation of using the information when it next goes before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for a long-term rate plan.
“This study confirms that Davis-Besse greatly strengthens the local, regional and state economies through job creation, tax payments, and direct and secondary spending,” Myers said.
More: Nuclear Energy Institute
Wyoming, Colorado Companies Merge Uranium Mining Operations
Two western uranium miners are merging operations, spurred by a sluggish market for yellowcake uranium, which is refined into nuclear fuel.
Uranerz Energy, of Casper, Wyo., is merging with Denver’s Energy Fuels Inc. Uranerz shareholders will control 55% of the new company, which will adopt the Energy Fuels name.
Uranerz operates a mine in northeast Wyoming in which the uranium is extracted by “in situ leaching,” a process in which water is injected into rock and then pumped to the surface where the uranium is separated from the liquid. Energy Fuels operates a mine in Utah that employs conventional mining of uranium ore.
More: Billings Gazette
MDU Resources Group Names New CEO
Nicole Kivisto is the new president and CEO of MDU Resources Group, the company that owns Montana-Dakota Utilities, Great Plains Natural Gas, Cascade Natural Gas and Intermountain Gas. Together, the companies serve 1 million electric and natural gas customers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
A native of North Dakota, Kivisto replaces K. Frank Morehouse, who resigned.
More: Rock Hill Herald
Minnesota Wind Farm Owners File for Bankruptcy
The owners of two small wind farms in Minnesota have filed for bankruptcy protection, putting the investments of a consortium of 360 farmers at risk.
Minwind Energy said expensive repair costs and a paperwork error that leaves them open to a possible federal fine of $1.9 million mean it no longer has enough money to run the wind farms.
The farms have 11 turbines, went online in 2002 and 2004, and were profitable until 2012. Most of the facilities’ energy is sold to Alliant Energy and Xcel Energy.
More: Star Tribune
Entergy Spending $187 Million on Lake Charles Tx Project
Entergy Gulf States Louisiana has filed with the Louisiana Public Service Commission to build a transmission line and two substations to bolster service reliability in the Lake Charles area.
The 25-mile line is designed to supply an estimated 500 MW of load growth in the area in the next few years. Another 500 MW of load could develop in the near future, Entergy officials said. The company said construction would begin in 2016 and be completed in 2018.
More: The New Orleans Advocate
Duke, Dominion Set Records During Cold Wave Last Week
Duke Energy Progress, the electric utility serving customers in parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, set a record for winter power use during last Thursday’s frigid temperatures.
The new peak of 14,473 MW was set for the hour ending 8 a.m. The previous record was 14,190 MW set last Jan. 7, during the Polar Vortex. Duke asked customers to conserve when temperatures began to plunge. By 8 a.m., the temperature in Charlotte, N.C., dipped to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dominion Virginia Power’s 2.1 million customers also set a new winter peak during last week’s cold snap.
The utility’s load climbed to 19,870 MW at about 8 a.m. Wednesday. That eclipsed the previous record of 19,785 MW set on Jan. 30 of last year.
More: News & Observer; Associated Press
Hawaiian Electric Shareholders to Vote on Acquisition by NextEra in Spring
Shareholders of Hawaiian Electric Industries will vote this spring on NextEra Energy’s $4.3 billion offer for subsidiary utility Hawaiian Electric.
The acquisition also needs the approval of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. The companies say they expect to close the deal by the end of this year. The merger was announced late last year.
More: Pacific Business News
Clean Line Facing More Opposition to Illinois Transmission Line
Clean Line Energy’s Grain Belt Express, a proposed 750-mile direct-current transmission line designed to deliver wind energy from Kansas to markets east, is facing mounting opposition in Illinois.
A public meeting on the plan in Jacksonville, Ill., last week was attended not only by landowners whose property the 600-kV line could cross, but activists from three other states with experience in fighting Clean Line projects. A group calling itself Block GBE Illinois is forming to help coordinate opposition.
A company spokesman said Clean Line was committed to an “open, transparent process that keeps landowners, the public, elected officials, community leaders and the media informed about all facets of the project’s planning and construction process.”