A conservation group named the Susquehanna River as the nation’s third-most endangered, blaming Exelon’s Conowingo Dam for allowing pollutants and sediment to flow into the Chesapeake Bay. American Rivers said the 88-year-old dam’s ability to capture those materials is exhausted.
The Susquehanna, which runs nearly 500 miles from Cooperstown, N.Y., drains half of the state of Pennsylvania and provides more than half of the Chesapeake’s fresh water. Nitrogen from farm runoff feeds algae blooms, creating dead zones.
Maryland officials have asked the U.S. Senate to reject legislation they say would allow Exelon to avoid complying with state water quality standards. Exelon, which is seeking to renew its federal license for the dam, said the company is working with stakeholders to protect the bay’s health.
More: The Baltimore Sun; American Rivers
Documents Show ExxonMobil, Others Hid Climate Change Info
Documents released by the Center for International Environmental Law as part of its ongoing project on the energy industry’s studies of climate change suggests industry insiders had hard knowledge of carbon dioxide’s effect on the global climate as early as 60 years ago.
“From 1957 onward, there is no doubt that Humble Oil, which is now Exxon, was clearly on notice” about rising CO2 levels, said Carroll Muffett, the center’s director. Muffett and others involved in the project say the industry put together a group to monitor pollution studies and to encourage public skepticism to fight against environmental legislation.
The documents are the latest released by the center, which have led four attorneys general to begin investigating Exxon.
More: The New York Times
400-MW Wind Farm to Serve Kansas City, Google
A European utility company is teaming up with a Kansas developer to build a 400-MW wind farm in the southwest portion of the state. Enel Green Power North America, the American subsidiary of Italy’s Enel, and Tradewind Energy announced the project April 8.
The $613 million Cimarron Bend project will be the largest wind farm Enel has ever built, and it will be the second largest wind farm in Kansas. The developers say the project will create 350 construction jobs and produce enough energy to power 150,000 households.
The project will consist of 200 wind turbines on 60 square miles. It will sell power to the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, which serves as the municipal electric utility for the city, and Google.
More: Lawrence Journal-World
FirstEnergy Customers Offered 100% Wind Power at SOS Price
FirstEnergy is offering a limited number of Ohio customers the opportunity to switch to 100% wind-generated energy at the same price as standard power. The program, Switch2Green4Free, is open to the first 1,000 residential customers who enroll.
The power will be sourced through a contract with subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions from wind farms throughout the country.
But Trish Demeter, managing director of Energy & Clean Air Programs at the Ohio Environmental Council, was skeptical about the promotional program’s aim, saying that FirstEnergy still appears committed to fossil fuel generation. “We’re not really seeing any clear path forward for FirstEnergy as far as making any real and substantial transition to a cleaner portfolio,” she said.
More: The Plain Dealer
Exelon’s Nine Mile Point Unit 2 Refueling Begins
Exelon removed Nine Mile Point Unit 2 from service last week for a planned refueling outage. For several weeks, more than 2,000 workers will replace nearly one-third of the reactor’s fuel and perform thousands of inspections and maintenance activities.
The Unit 2 outage comes as Exelon is urging state utility regulators to implement new “clean energy” subsidies to help its nuclear plants survive the financial stresses caused by low-cost natural gas-fired power plants.
Nine Mile Point Unit 1 will continue to generate electricity during the Unit 2 outage.
More: Syracuse.com
Marathon Oil Selling Wyo. Holdings to Merit Energy
Marathon Oil announced last week it is selling its Wyoming oil-producing assets to Merit Energy for $870 million. It is selling leases in the Big Horn and Wind River basins, a reflection of the continued downturn in oil operations in those regions.
Marathon, which has a 100-year history of oil production in Wyoming, announced its intention earlier this year to sell up to $1 billion in assets in order to concentrate on wells that produce higher returns. Its core assets are in North Dakota and Texas.
“Ongoing portfolio management continues to drive the simplification and concentration of our portfolio to lower-risk, higher-return U.S. resource plays and support our 2016 objective of balance-sheet protection,” Marathon CEO Lee Tillman said.
More: Casper Star Tribune
Duke Retires Wabash River Station Units After 63 Years
Four coal-fired units at Duke Energy’s Wabash River Generating Station near Terre Haute, Ind., have gone cold after 63 years of service. Units 2, 3, 4 and 5 shut down about a week before their air permits expired Friday.
One unit at Wabash Station is still active. Duke says it is investigating a possible fuel switch to natural gas.
More: The Journal Gazette
Purdue Scientists Pursue Hybrid Solar-Hydrogen Tech
Purdue University scientists are working with Swiss researchers to develop “hydricity,” a term they’ve coined for a thermal-solar system that generates electricity and produces hydrogen to generate power when solar power is unattainable.
Hydricity uses concentrated solar energy to superheat water to produce steam for immediate power generation, as well as hydrogen, which is stored for generating electricity when there’s little to no sunlight. Although the process is expensive, researchers see value in the project because stored hydrogen doesn’t lose energy over time, unlike batteries.
“Here what we’re doing by co-producing hydrogen, we avoid a step of making electricity and then storing it,” said Purdue chemical engineering professor Rakesh Agrawal. “We directly make hydrogen from sunlight, and that’s what makes it more efficient. We can do almost anything: purify water, produce chemicals, create fertilizer for food production.”
More: Inside Indiana Business
Merger Credits Begin Rolling Out to Md., DC Pepco customers
Pepco customers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties will begin receiving the first of two $50 bill credits this month as part of the company’s recent merger with Exelon. The second credit will be applied to bills in 2017.
D.C. ratepayers also should see a $54.59 credit in their bills this month.
Pepco said information about credits for customers in Delaware and New Jersey, also affected by the merger, will be forthcoming.
More: Washington Business Journal
Exelon Power Plant Site in Boston Sold
Exelon has agreed to sell its century-old New Boston Generating Station to Hilco Global and Boston developer Redgate Real Estate for undisclosed terms. The sale is set to close by the end of June.
The buyers have not disclosed their redevelopment plans, said a spokesman for Hilco, a Chicago-area financial services conglomerate whose redevelopment arm specializes in “maximizing the value of obsolete industrial sites.” Hilco and Redgate beat out at least six other bidders for the property.
The plant, built in 1892 to burn coal, was later converted to oil and then to natural gas before being largely retired in 2007.
More: The Boston Globe