Former FERC member Phil Moeller has signed on with the Edison Electric Institute as senior vice president of energy delivery and chief customer solutions officer, the organization announced after its winter meeting.
“I look forward to welcoming Phil to the EEI team,” said Nick Akins, EEI chairman and CEO of American Electric Power. “Phil’s diverse talents and considerable expertise in regulatory and legislative affairs will be incredibly valuable for the industry during a time of considerable change.”
Moeller will direct EEI’s energy delivery, retail energy services and state regulatory outreach activities. He left FERC last fall after two terms.
More: EEI
TransCanada Sues US for $15 Billion over Keystone XL
TransCanada, the developer of the Keystone XL pipeline project, has sued the U.S. for failing to issue crucial permits to allow the project to proceed. The company is seeking $15 billion in damages, saying the State Department’s denial of the permit for the $8 billion pipeline was “arbitrary and unjustified.”
TransCanada is suing under terms of the North American Free Trade Act in U.S. District Court in Texas, saying the Obama administration’s denial “exceeded his power under the U.S. Constitution.”
“In its decision, the U.S. State Department acknowledged the denial was not based on the merits of the project,” TransCanada said in the statement. “Rather, it was a symbolic gesture based on speculation about the perceptions of the international community regarding the administration’s leadership on climate change and the president’s assertion of unprecedented, independent powers.”
More: Scientific American
FERC Grants Columbia Permits for Utica Access
FERC on Friday approved Columbia Gas Transmission’s proposed $45 million Utica Access Project in West Virginia, designed to bring Appalachian shale gas to market. The project, which includes 5 miles of new pipeline and modifications to existing compression facilities, would supply up to 205 million cubic feet of gas per day to the Appalachia Pool.
The project is expected to be completed this year.
Columbia also filed an application with FERC for its WB Express project, which calls for construction of two new compressor stations, about 26 miles of pipeline replacement located along existing corridors and approximately 3 miles of new pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. That system would deliver 1.3 billion cubic feet a day of shale gas to Mid-Atlantic and Gulf markets.
More: Columbia Pipeline Group
FERC Extends Comment Period for Northeast Energy Direct
FERC extended the public comment period for the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline until Jan. 15 after what it described as errors in its online comment system in late December and the first few days of January.
Kinder Morgan’s plan is to build a $5 billion, 415-mile pipeline to carry shale gas from Pennsylvania through New York to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The comment period was set to end Jan. 6, but the errors kept some parties from filing comments.
More: KallanishEnergy
DOE Selects Team to Explore Borehole Disposal Method
The Energy Department has appointed a team to research the feasibility of drilling deep holes into a crystalline rock structure in North Dakota as a possible method of storing nuclear waste. A team from the Battelle Memorial Institute will drill a test hole in the formation near Rugby, N.D., as part of the project.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said there could be several uses for such deep drilling, including waste disposal or geothermal energy development. It’s not a new idea. More than 40 years ago, the government examined the possibility of drilling into granite formations to store weapons production nuclear waste, but no active project came of that.
The department said it would commit $35 million to the Rugby project over the next five years.
More: Department of Energy
EPA Chief Says Office Will Push to Maintain Climate Gains
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said last week that the coming year will see ambitious moves by the Obama administration to maintain and build on gains it has made fighting greenhouse gas pollution.
“We’re not just going to stay with what we’ve already done,” she said in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations. She said the administration will continue to press for additional gains, in part by assisting other countries.
“Countries want to do it, but many of them don’t have the capacity at this point,” McCarthy said. “A lot of what the EPA is doing is sharing expertise — on how to do the work and also on the benefits it brings, so it’s not seen as a chore but as an opportunity.”
More: The Washington Post
House Republicans Seek to Block EPA Clean Water Rule
House Republicans are set to consider a bill that would block the EPA Clean Water Rule, arguing the rule gives the government too much control over uses of the nation’s waterways.
The House Rules Committee is planning to take up a Congressional Review Act of the rule this week. It is a step before the rule goes before the House for a final vote. The Senate in November passed a CRA resolution.
“My legislation is the necessary next step in pushing back against this blatant power grab by the EPA,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the resolution’s sponsor, said in November. If the House passes the resolution, President Obama likely would veto it.
More: The Hill