Tennessee Gas Pipeline took strong issue with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s contention that the proposed Northeast Energy Direct pipeline is unneeded in a 503-page response to questions posed by FERC and other interested parties about the natural gas pipeline.
The pipeline company said Healey’s study ignores important information and doesn’t fully take into account the amount of baseload generation that is being retired in the Northeast, and the resulting need for more fuel for gas-fired generation.
In addition to addressing issues such as its use of protected land and possible greenhouse gas emissions, the company also rejected assertions that the pipeline would be partially funded by ratepayer tariffs. “The proposed project is not relying on subsidies to be built,” Tennessee Gas wrote.
More: The Recorder
FERC Begins Review of PennEast Pipeline Project
FERC has begun an environmental impact study of the PennEast Pipeline, a proposed 114-mile project that would deliver natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation in Pennsylvania to markets mostly in New Jersey.
The commission has asked EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to participate in the study. A draft of the study will be made available for public review, and comments from the public will be incorporated. PennEast has said it wants to begin construction in early 2017.
More: The Morning Call
Texas Joins States in Challenge to EPA Ozone Rule
Texas last week announced it would join eight states that are contesting EPA’s ozone rule, which would cut power plant and industry ozone release from 75 parts per billion to 70 ppb. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the new rule would “impose a serious financial burden on the Texas economy for dubious public health benefit.”
“The EPA’s new ozone rule is not supported by scientific data,” Paxton said. “Areas of the country that fail to comply with these impossible standards will be subject to costly new regulations that will harm our economy and kill jobs.”
The environmental agency finalized the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone on Oct. 1. Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin have announced they would challenge the new standards.
More: Power Magazine
DOE Launches Spent Nuclear Fuel Initiative
The Energy Department has launched an initiative to develop an alternative repository for spent nuclear fuel to the failed proposal to build the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. The new effort will concentrate on developing a site with the consent of a local community.
“The launch of our consent-based siting initiative represents an important step toward addressing this nuclear waste management challenge, so that we can continue to benefit from nuclear technologies,” Lynn Orr, the deputy secretary for science and energy, wrote in a blog post last week.
More: The Hill
FERC Agrees to Allow Missouri Hydro Project to Move Forward
FERC has granted a permit allowing a three-year study on the feasibility of an 8-MW hydro project at an existing dam near Hannibal in Ralls County, Mo.
Energy Resources USA wants to build a new, 770-foot-long intake area at the Mississippi River Lock and Dam No. 22, which is owned by the federal government. The project would funnel water to a concrete powerhouse containing four hydro turbines. FERC’s approval means the company can move forward with the study and start to prepare a license application.
More: HydroWorld
South Carolina: DOE Owes $1 Million Daily for MOx Plant Failures
South Carolina says it is beginning to tally a $1 million/day tab against the Energy Department for failing to fulfill a promise to get its trouble-plagued mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility operating by the end of 2015.
The MOx facility was supposed to be disposing of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium by Dec. 31 under a 2003 agreement between the department and South Carolina. Gov. Nikki Haley wrote to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz informing him that the state intended to start imposing the fine for the missed milestone. “Promises made must be promises kept,” she said in the letter.
Moniz has not yet responded.
More: Aiken Standard