Constellation, Bloom Energy Begin Microgrid Construction
The City of Hartford, Constellation and Bloom Energy have started construction of an 800-kW fuel cell microgrid that will provide 100% of the electricity for a school, a library, a senior center and a health clinic during nonemergencies. It will also provide emergency power to these locations in addition to a local fuel station and grocery store.
Constellation is providing engineering, procurement, construction and operation services. Bloom Energy is providing the fuel cells. The city will buy the electrical output at or below current market rates through a 15-year power purchase agreement.
The project, the state’s first to be developed through a public-private effort, is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2016.
More: Constellation
State’s Clean Energy Budget at Risk
Environmentalists, union leaders, solar company executives and several lawmakers condemned a proposal by lawmakers to divert $22 million in clean energy funding to help close a state budget gap.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed an alternative budget proposal that would close the budget shortfall without tapping into the funds. The state is facing a budget shortfall of $933 million.
More: Hartford Courant
IOWA
MidAmerican Energy to Build 2,000-MW Wind Farm
MidAmerican Energy says it will spend $3.6 billion to build a 2,000-MW wind farm in the state. Gov. Terry Branstad called it the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
The cost of the project will be recovered through federal wind energy subsidies over 10 years, MidAmerican CEO Bill Fehrman said. When completed in 2018, it will bring the amount of wind energy produced by the company to 85% of its total annual sales, he said.
Fehrman would not say where the wind farm would be located. Negotiations are ongoing with state property owners, he said.
More: The Gazette
MAINE
New Solar Bill Passage Longshot Without Support
A bill aimed at boosting the state’s solar industry passed the House 81-69 but faces a likely veto from Gov. Paul LePage. Opponents say the measure would saddle customers with higher electricity prices to pay for solar subsidies.
The bill would replace the current net metering system with hourly metering and a 20-year price guarantee on the rate that businesses and homeowners are compensated for producing electricity. Proponents say it would help create jobs in the solar industry and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
State officials are sharply divided on the benefits, or lack thereof, of the bill, however. Public Utilities Commission Chairman Mark Vannoy has said it would cost ratepayers $22 million in the fifth year of the plan; Public Advocate Tim Schneider, meanwhile, says the bill would save consumers $122 million over the 20 years.
More: Portland Press Herald
MICHIGAN
Groups: Enbridge Violating Mackinac Pipeline Pact
A group of environmental organizations and Native American tribes are calling on state officials to terminate the flow of oil through Enbridge’s Line 5, alleging the twin pipelines’ advanced corrosion violates terms of a 1953 easement.
The groups cited data posted on Enbridge’s website from a 2013 inspection that shows the pipeline suffers from corrosion in nine places, two dents and 35 weld cracks. One area of corrosion shows a 26% loss of pipeline wall thickness; the original easement agreement called for the pipes to be at least 0.812 inches thick.
“The law and this easement agreement are clear: State leaders cannot wait another year or more while Enbridge continues to violate safety conditions it agreed to and withholds safety inspection and other data from the public and the state,” said environmental attorney Liz Kirkwood.
More: Detroit Free Press
Michigan State Now Coal-Free
Michigan State University’s T.B. Simon Power Plant has switched from coal to natural gas, ending the university’s use of coal. President Lou Anna Simon announced the transition on April 14.
Bob Ellerhorst, the university’s director of utilities, said that the coal plant would have required expensive emissions controls to continue operating.
MSU first announced its coal-free intentions in 2012 as part of the university’s Energy Transition Plan, which also stipulates that 40% of campus power will come from renewable sources by 2030. Currently, 15% of MSU’s electricity is sourced from renewables.
More: Lansing State Journal
Entergy’s Palisades at Center of Public Forum
A public forum concerning the relicensing of the Palisades nuclear plant is scheduled for April 21 in Kalamazoo.
The Sierra Club of Southwest Michigan, Michigan Safe Energy Future and D.C.-based Beyond Nuclear will lead a discussion on whether Palisades’ operating license should be renewed. At 45 years old, the Entergy-owned plant is one of the oldest in the U.S. with one of the most brittle reactor vessels.
Kalamazoo is one of many cities in the state within a 50-mile secondary radiation zone of Palisades, which is situated on Lake Michigan.
More: MLive
MONTANA
DEQ to Keep Studying Suspended Coal Mine Project
State environmental officials will continue to study the potential effects of the proposed 20-million-ton-per-year Otter Creek coal mine near the Wyoming border, even though its sponsor, bankrupt producer Arch Coal, suspended the project.
The Department of Environmental Quality said it wants to determine the extent to which streambeds need to be protected at the site near Ashland. The work would prove valuable if the mine is revived or another proposal takes its place, a department official said.
A filing in Arch’s federal bankruptcy case reveals the company lost a key coal lease for Otter Creek more than three months before the St. Louis company announced it was suspending its application.
More: Billings Gazette
NEBRASKA
Lawmakers Pass Wind, Climate Change Resolutions
The state Legislature passed a bill boosting wind energy development by a 34-10 vote, which proponents said will reduce regulatory obstacles for wind developers and make the state competitive with neighbors that produce more wind power.
Lawmakers followed up that tangible support for wind power by approving a non-binding resolution calling for official recognition of climate change. The resolution, passed by a vote of 28-3 in the nonpartisan body, calls for a special panel of legislators to examine climate change. “I think that’s progress,” sponsor Sen. Ken Haar said.
Wind power appears to be gaining support in the state. “Our customers are demanding a certain mix of renewables, and we have to recognize that,” said Sen. Dan Watermeier, who previously opposed wind energy.
More: Lincoln Journal Star
Pipeline Regulator Agrees to Recuse Self from Keystone Issues
The new director of the Public Service Commission’s division overseeing national oil and gas pipelines, a former engineer for Keystone XL pipeline sponsor TransCanada, said he will recuse himself from working on any issues related to the pipeline.
Scott Coburn made the promise before he was hired by the PSC by a 4-1 vote. Commissioner Crystal Rhoades opposed, saying the hiring gives the appearance of a conflict of interest.
TransCanada has withdrawn its plan to build the pipeline to existing lines leading to Gulf refineries, but the company has reserved its right to reapply.
More: The Associated Press
NEW HAMPSHIRE
North Country Chamber Drops Northern Pass Opposition
The North Country Chamber of Commerce has halted its opposition to the Northern Pass transmission project, which would import Canadian hydroelectric power. The chamber switched its position to neutral, citing a divided membership.
“We represent members who are both in favor and opposed to the Northern Pass project,” the group said in a press release. “Therefore, we would like to be listed as neutral interveners and be the conduit for sharing information to our members.”
Two chamber board members resigned in protest and a third said the board was pressured by developer Eversource Energy. The chamber voted three times over a five-day period in March and April until it finally changed its position from “opposed” to “neutral.”
More: New Hampshire Union Leader
NEW JERSEY
Officials, Customers Blast Jersey Gas Rate Hike
Local elected officials and customers of New Jersey Natural Gas held a media event in front of a pizza joint to denounce the company’s proposed 24% rate increase, which came after its executive compensation in 2015 increased about 40% from the previous year.
“What makes the 24% increase really outrageous and unacceptable is when you juxtapose it to the excessive increases in compensation for the executives at New Jersey Natural Gas,” Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty said. “We’re talking about Wall Street-type salaries to manage the smallest gas utility in the state of New Jersey.”
The company defended the request, saying it is the first rate filing since 2007. The filing is now undergoing review by an administrative law judge.
More: NJ.com
NEW MEXICO
Anti-Coal Advocates Protest As PNM Rate Hearings Begin
About 50 climate change activists protested outside the state’s Public Regulation Commission offices last week at the start of three weeks of hearings over Public Service Company of New Mexico’s $123.5 million rate case. The protesters are calling for the utility to reduce its reliance on coal generation.
PNM’s proposal involves a contract with Navajo Mine Coal Company to supply fuel to the Four Corners Power Plant. The company has defended its continued use of coal, calling the fuel an “affordable and reliable option” and contending that rates would be pushed even higher without it.
PNM says the 15.8% rate boost, its first in five years, is required to recover more than $650 million the company has spent improving its distribution network. The commission last year rejected a rate-increase request by the company.
More: Santa Fe New Mexican
Commission OKs Complaint Against PNM
The Public Regulation Commission voted unanimously to require Public Service Company of New Mexico to respond to a complaint by a clean-energy advocacy group over its loan to another company for the purchase of the San Juan Coal Mine.
PNM revealed earlier this year it formed a subsidiary, New Mexico Capital Utility, to loan Westmoreland Coal $125 million to purchase the mine on property adjacent to the San Juan Generating Station.
The PRC last month voted against a request by New Energy Economy, an anti-coal nonprofit, to investigate PNM’s dealings in the mine purchase. But last week, the commission decided to allow a new complaint by New Energy to move forward and gave PNM 20 days to answer the complaint.
More: Santa Fe New Mexican
NORTH CAROLINA
State to Require ‘Environmental Justice’ Reviews of Landfills
The state will begin requiring “environmental justice” reviews of any landfills that it permits in response to objections that low-income residents and racial minorities are disproportionately affected by Duke Energy’s statewide coal ash cleanup.
While the reviews are still being developed, advocates say they are expected to exceed state and federal health requirements. They will evaluate adverse socioeconomic, environmental and health risks associated with the facilities.
Coal ash, the byproduct of coal-burning generators, contains substances including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can be harmful to people. An attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center said people of color and low-income residents live closest to some of the state’s coal ash waste sites.
More: North Carolina Health News
OKLAHOMA
Commission Rejects OG&E Solar Billing Plan
The Corporation Commission voted 3-0 against an Oklahoma Gas & Electric plan to change the way it calculates the bills for rooftop solar users and directed the utility to fully explore the issue in its pending rate case.
The order came almost two weeks after the commission indicated it wasn’t happy with its options in OG&E’s distributed generation tariff. The utility filed the case under a state law that allows regulated utilities to charge a different rate to rooftop solar users if they aren’t paying their fair share of grid costs.
OG&E proposed a demand charge for the first time on residential and small commercial customers. The typical solar residential customer using 6 to 8 kW would pay $16 to $21 per month in demand charges.
More: The Oklahoman
PENNSYLVANIA
Judge: Sunoco May Build Pipeline Without Landowners’ Permission
A Lebanon County judge has ruled that Sunoco Logistics may bury a natural gas liquids pipeline across the properties of three landowners who refused to sign easement agreements.
The Mariner East 2 pipeline will run 350 miles from the Marcellus Shale to a Delaware River terminal near Philadelphia.
The residents say they will appeal the ruling. They say Sunoco should not be considered a public utility, as the Public Utility Commission deems it, because most of the product flowing through the new line is expected to be shipped overseas.
More: Lebanon Daily News
SOUTH DAKOTA
County Officials Approve Brady II Wind Farm’s Construction
Hettinger County officials have approved a permit for a second phase of the 72-turbine Brady Wind Energy Center project. The Planning and Zoning Board and the County Commission voted unanimously to approve the conditional-use permit, but it must still receive Public Service Commission approval.
Brady Wind II is technically a separate project with a separate power purchase agreement than the nearby Brady Wind I project. Developer NextEra Energy Resources has said that if Brady Wind I is denied by the PSC, it may not move forward with Brady Wind II.
Combined, the two phases of Brady Wind call for 159 turbines generating about 300 MW of power. SPP member Basin Electric Power Cooperative has signed a PPA with NextEra for Brady II’s energy.
More: The Bismarck Tribune
TEXAS
Tribes Protest Coal Mine on Mexico Border
Members of several Native American tribes joined long-running attempts by environmentalists and local activists to shut down the Eagle Pass coal mine near the Mexican border, which they say threatens ancestral burial grounds. The tribes say transporting the high-sulfur coal, which is shipped to Mexico, would release hazardous particles into the air, and that the discharge from the operations would run off into a creek that ends in the Rio Grande.
Members of the Lipan Apaches, the Pacuache Band of the Cohuiltecan Nation and the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe have teamed with the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma to criticize Dos Republicas, a company owned by Mexican companies partnered with the North American Coal Corporation and its subsidiary Camino Real Fuels.
More than 100 activists marched 9 miles from the Rio Grande to the mine on Saturday.
More: The Texas Tribune; San Antonio Express-News
VERMONT
Hearings Contentious on Renewable Energy Siting
The state’s process for deciding where solar and wind energy projects can be located were the subject of contentious hearings before two House of Representatives committees.
Margaret Cheney, a member of the Public Service Board, criticized several aspects of a Senate-passed bill now under consideration in the House, which would give the public more leverage over siting decisions. She said the bill called for the board to reopen a study of wind turbine noise complaints that would require a new case to be brought to the board.
Cheney said the vast majority of projects draw no complaints, but of those that do, “I think that some of it is growing pains in a changing world.”
More: The Associated Press
WYOMING
Developer Says Wind Farm To be Operational by Year-End
SPower says construction has begun on the controversial 46-turbine Pioneer Wind Park, the first new wind farm in the state since 2010. The 80-MW project could provide as many as 179 temporary construction jobs.
Pioneer’s power purchase agreement with Rocky Mountain Power requires it to be in commercial operation by the end of 2016. The project also faces a legal challenge. The Northern Laramie Range Alliance is appealing state regulators’ decision last year to amend its permit after sPower acquired the project from Wasatch Wind.
The NLRA has challenged Pioneer at the state Supreme Court, FERC and in federal court, losing in each venue.
More: Casper Star-Tribune