Md. Enters Fray over Dominion’s Coal Ash Water Release Plan
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration said it intends to appeal a permit approved by Virginia regulators that would allow Dominion Virginia Power to release 215 million gallons of treated coal ash water into Quantico Creek, which empties into the Potomac River.
Dominion wants to seal five coal ash residue ponds at the Possum Point plant, where ash has been stored since the plant last burned coal in 2003. A company spokesman said its disposal proposal meets stringent limits imposed by the Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality.
But Hogan isn’t so sure. “The fact is, Virginia’s decision to dump millions of gallons of polluted wastewater into the Potomac River could adversely impact both human and aquatic life,” chief Hogan spokesman Matthew Clark said. “Ignoring the risk simply isn’t an option.”
More: The Washington Post
ARKANSAS
Entergy Says Fuel-Cost Savings Will Offset 8% Rate Increase
Entergy Arkansas says a projected decrease in fuel costs would help offset the customer impact of a requested 8% base-rate increase before the Public Service Commission.
The utility met with the PSC last month to discuss a settlement rate proposal for a $133.6 million rate increase. If approved, a customer with a $100 monthly bill would see it increase to $108.30/month.
More: The Associated Press
CONNECTICUT
United Illuminating, Eversource Propose Integrating Renewables
The United Illuminating Co. and Eversource Energy have submitted proposals to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for pilot projects to better integrate renewable energy into the electric distribution system.
Both utilities propose to install battery storage systems to help integrate the growing number of distributed energy sources on the grid. Another proposal is an online mapping tool that would allow the utilities to view existing power generators and proposed projects at the substation and circuit levels. “It would indicate where our distribution network has capacity to support in a neighborhood or whether that area has more solar generation feeding into it than the system can really handle,” said Camilo Serna, vice president strategic planning and policy for Eversource.
DEEP has until January 2017 to report to the legislature about the proposals, which were mandated last year.
More: New Haven Register
ILLINOIS
Madigan Accuses Utility Execs of Misleading Regulators
In a filing with the Commerce Commission, Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the chief executives of Peoples Gas and previous parent Integrys Energy Group violated state law last year when they withheld information from regulators on the soaring costs of the utility’s program to replace 2,000 miles of aging gas mains in Chicago.
Madigan said former Peoples President John Kleczynski and former Integrys CEO Charles Schrock knew the program’s costs had nearly doubled, from $4.6 billion to $8 billion, when they testified last year before the ICC on the proposed acquisition of Integrys by Wisconsin Energy Corp. The commission, which approved the $5.7 billion merger, is now investigating whether it should impose fines on company executives for misrepresenting material facts.
Madigan’s office, in seeking more information from the ICC, said the merger could have been impacted by the disclosure and raised questions of whether finalizing the transaction “was the primary concern of Integrys executives given the tremendous financial incentives that were conditioned upon the completion of the merger.”
More: Crain’s Chicago Business
INDIANA
Couple Challenge Recent Edwardsport Settlement
A local attorney and his wife are challenging a recent settlement between Duke Energy and several parties concerning the Edwardsport coal gasification project. The agreement with the state’s Office of Utility Consumer Counsel and industrial customers would limit rates and provide money for solar projects and low-income customers.
Michael Mullett, co-founder of an advocacy group that was granted intervenor status by the Utility Regulatory Commission, says the settlement doesn’t protect residential ratepayers. He said that ratepayers should not be asked to finance any of the project’s $145 million in start-up costs. The settlement allows the utility to recover about $80 million of startup costs from customers.
More: Midwest Energy News
IOWA
Lawmakers Try to Boost Popular Solar Credit
Legislators are proposing to boost funding for a popular solar credit from $5 million to $7.5 million in an effort to maintain momentum for the solar industry. State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, the bill’s sponsor, said the Solar Energy System Tax Credit has been “hugely important” in convincing homeowners and business owners to install solar panels.
“There’s been $90 million in private investment for $11 million in tax credits,” said Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City. “It’s created jobs in almost every county. It’s made a huge difference here.”
The solar tax credit was launched in 2012 with a budget of $1.5 million and funding has since been twice increased. The credit works out to about 18% of the cost of a typical solar installation.
More: Midwest Energy News
KANSAS
Senate Moves to Block State’s Clean Power Plan Study
The state Senate has advanced a bill that would block the Corporation Commission from spending any money to study how to comply with the federal Clean Power Plan until a pending legal challenge is resolved.
Sen. Rob Olson (R-Olathe) added the amendment onto a bill that calls for disbanding the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority, an agency that was established to coordinate construction of new transmission lines to move wind energy to urban markets.
Lawmakers last year authorized the KCC and the Department of Health and Environment to develop a response to the Clean Power Plan, but only after review by a legislative oversight committee. The KCC is searching for a consulting firm to work on the state’s study.
More: Lawrence Journal-World
Utilities Square off over Tx Right of First Refusal Bill
A bill that would allow existing state transmission owners first crack at building new local power lines attracted a standing-room-only crowd of rival industry advocates to a hearing in the House of Representatives.
The legislation was prompted by FERC’s decision to eliminate the federal right of first refusal on new transmission facilities ranging from 100 to 200 kV. FERC Order 1000 allows states to maintain transmission owners’ rights of first refusal for projects on their existing networks.
Supporters said the bill would ensure a reliable electric grid. But skeptics, including Bill Riggins, senior vice president for Kansas Electric Power Cooperative, said it would concentrate the transmission market. “The bill would eliminate open competition for transmission ownership, thus allowing current transmission owners, and their chosen affiliates, to monopolize future transmission in Kansas,” he said.
More: The Topeka Capital-Journal
LOUISIANA
ALJ Says Cleco Sale not Beneficial to Customers
An administrative law judge questioned whether state regulators should allow the $4.9 billion sale of Cleco Power to a consortium of Canadian and Australian investors, citing a provision that allows buyers to pocket about $30 million in taxes collected from the utility’s customers.
Chief Administrative Law Judge Valerie Seal Meiners said the deal may be good for Cleco shareholders but not for the utility’s 286,000 customers in the state. Meiners has been reviewing the deal behind closed doors for the past 18 months.
The Public Service Commission has scheduled a vote Wednesday to decide whether the sale goes through. Cleco shareholders would sell their stock at a 15% premium, about $55.37/share, to a consortium of investors led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, based in Sydney, Australia.
More: The Advocate
MAINE
Bill Would Endorse Natural Gas Storage
A legislative panel supports the idea of giving utilities the ability to reserve storage space in a proposed LNG facility, which would hold the equivalent of 1 billion cubic feet of gas for customers during peak winter heating months.
Northern LNG, which has proposed building the facility, has been pushing the bill, which the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee is expected to endorse next week after working on final language.
One potential roadblock: The Legislature in 2013 gave utilities the authority to sign long-term supply contracts to finance an expansion of natural gas pipeline capacity. Lawmakers say pipeline expansion is a priority and they don’t want the LNG proposal to interfere.
More: Portland Press Herald
MICHIGAN
PSC: Utilities Exceeded 10% Renewable Mandate
Utilities in 2015 surpassed the state’s 10% renewable energy mandate, the Public Service Commission said in its sixth annual report, prompting conservationists to call for the state to set a higher target.
The PSC said all 75 power producers in the state met the target by Dec. 31. Under a 2008 energy law, they are required to maintain the same amount of renewable energy credits in the future.
Jack Schmitt, deputy director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, said the renewable energy standard now needs to expand beyond the 10% level. Schmitt said investment in renewable sources has leveled off at around $2.9 billion.
More: Crain’s Detroit Business
MISSOURI
Ameren may be Forced to Install More Pollution Controls
EPA’s recent designation of St. Charles and Franklin counties as areas where sulfur dioxide levels are too high could force Ameren Missouri to install more pollution control equipment on its Labadie Plant on the Missouri River.
The state Department of Natural Resources also showed SO2 exceeding limits, but it recommended deferring action until the federal agency weighed in.
The SO2 levels have declined since Ameren switched to low-sulfur coal from the Western Powder River basin, but it has not been enough to comply with the law, according to EPA.
More: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Pipeline Restrictions Fail to Gain Traction
Six of the 10 bills in the state legislature that would have complicated Kinder Morgan’s controversial Northeast Energy Direct pipeline project are already dead, and the other four also seem imperiled.
Lawmakers are still considering a bill that would force pipeline operators like Kinder Morgan to pay reluctant landowners three times market value for any property taken under eminent domain. Another bill would require utilities using eminent domain to buy an entire property, not just the right of way.
Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline is pushing the $5 billion natural gas transmission project that would deliver Marcellus Shale gas to New England markets. The pipeline has aroused intense public opposition.
More: New Hampshire Union Leader
NEW MEXICO
House Panel Ends Bid to Appoint PRC Members
Voters will continue to choose members of the Public Regulation Commission.
The House Judiciary Committee voted Feb. 11 to table a proposed constitutional amendment to change the commission from an elected body to one appointed by the governor, effectively killing the bill. The 8-3 vote came after three of the five members of the commission spoke in opposition to the measure.
State Rep. Carl Trujillo said 40 states and U.S. territories have regulatory bodies whose commissioners are appointed and said he wanted to make sure that the commission’s decisions “are not changed by political winds.”
More: The Santa Fe New Mexican
NEW YORK
State Joins 17-State Energy Accord Coalition
The state has joined the 17-state, bipartisan Governors’ Energy Accord Coalition, which develops energy policies and initiatives that expand clean energy sources, modernize energy infrastructure and build a clean energy economy.
“From the creation of a $5 billion Clean Energy Fund to implementing our ambitious Clean Energy Standard, New York is fully committed to our role as a national leader in growing the clean tech economy,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The governors of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington have also joined the effort.
More: Gov. Andrew Cuomo
NORTH CAROLINA
Duke Energy Progress’ Third Gas Plant Rejected
The staff of the Utilities Commission appears poised to recommend approval of Duke Energy Progress’ plan to replace a coal-fired plant at Lake Julian in Asheville with two natural gas units.
But staff said the company’s request for permission to build a third contingency plant if needed by 2024 was unwarranted.
If the project is rejected, the deadline for Duke to clean up coal ash at Lake Julian generation complex will be advanced.
More: Carolina Public Press
OHIO
Dynegy Presses Opposition to FirstEnergy, AEP PPAs
Opponents of the proposed power purchase agreements that would give FirstEnergy and American Electric Power guaranteed rates in the state are ratcheting up the rhetoric.
“The middle class is getting screwed,” Dynegy CEO Robert Flexon said at an energy forum in the state. “And quite honestly, folks, that’s how I feel about these PPAs. These only exist for Wall Street.” The Alliance for Energy Choice says nearly 55,000 emails protesting the proposed PPAs have been sent to elected officials and the Public Utilities Commission.
The agreements would guarantee the companies eight-year returns on power generated by some of the plants in their fleets. The companies have argued the PPAs are necessary to keep the plants operating in the competitive market.
More: Columbus Business First; The Blade
PENNSYLVANIA
Will Cap on Net Metering Stifle Alternative Energy Growth?
Solar energy advocates worry that a recent decision by the Public Utility Commission to limit the amount of energy residents can sell back to utilities might curtail alternative energy growth.
Under the ruling, residents who install new rooftop solar panels would be limited to 200% of a building’s historical usage or 50 kW.
Utilities had asked for even stricter caps, saying that the expense of paying residential providers the retail cost of their power was being passed down to consumers.
More: State Impact; The Philadelphia Inquirer
TEXAS
SPS Asks for $71.9M Increase to Cover Infrastructure Costs
Southwestern Public Service has filed for a $71.9 million rate increase for its Texas customers, just two months after the Public Utilities Commission of Texas denied the utility’s $42 million rate request and actually ordered a $4 million cut in revenue.
SPS said the increase in base rates is necessary because a significant amount of investment was not included in them, which are based on costs from a historical test period. The new request would increase a typical 1,000-kWh residential bill by $9.56/month, or 9.2%.
The PUCT in December answered the utility’s rate-increase request with a $4 million cut in revenue, but reallocated revenue among various customer classes so that the rate for residential customers actually went up $1.11/month on Feb. 1. SPS, however, says that reductions for fuel and purchased power costs over the past year have reduced a typical residential bill by more than $9/month.
More: Amarillo Globe-News
VIRGINIA
Assembly Moves to Take Control of Clean Power Plan Compliance
The State Assembly is advancing bills that would require its approval of any proposal to comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which has been stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The bills were approved last week by House and Senate panels in the Republican-controlled legislature. Republicans contend that the federal mandates will raise energy costs and hurt businesses.
More: WVIR