Study Shows Snowpack Deficit Could Last 3 Years
Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains, depleted after four years of drought, will likely remain in deficit until 2019, according to a University of California, Los Angeles study. The research debunks the notion that the recent El Niño, which increased snowpack levels to about 85% of normal, was a “drought buster.”
Sierra snowmelt accounts for more than 70% of the region’s streamflow, 60% of the state’s water supply and much of the energy output for the state’s extensive system of hydroelectric dams, which declined by two-thirds between 2011 and 2015.
Only one previous drought in 65 years required more than a year of recovery to the snowpack. “The fact that this deficit is so much larger is where this number comes from and why we would expect it to be a multiyear recovery,” said Steve Margulis, the study’s lead.
More: SFGate
IOWA
DNR: Dakota Access Can Transit Under Tribal Lands
The Department of Natural Resources will allow the builders of the Dakota Access pipeline to use horizontal drilling methods to construct the Bakken crude pipeline under historic tribal burial grounds in the Big Sioux River Wildlife Area, removing a regulatory impediment to the $3.8 billion pipeline.
The pipeline’s developers, Energy Transfer Partners, suggested the pipeline could be bored 85 feet beneath the surface as a way to resolve the dispute over the recently discovered burial ground. The drilling method would avoid surface disturbances of an open trench. “It’s obviously going to have to go deep enough so it’s not going to disturb the tribal grounds,” DNR spokesman Alan Foster said.
Native Americans said they still opposed the 1,168-mile pipeline. “It is disheartening that they have a green light to move ahead, but I feel very confident that there are a number of landowners, tribes and well-informed citizens who will be standing up to make sure that this pipeline does not get built,” said Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network.
More: Des Moines Register
KANSAS
Westar Energy Asks KCC to Reduce Rates by $18M
Westar Energy customers could see an $18 million rate reduction as a result of FERC’s approval of a settlement between Westar Energy and the Corporation Commission over transmission-delivery charges.
FERC on March 30 approved a settlement between Westar and the KCC after determining the company had collected too much money from customers. The ruling came a day before the state commission approved a $25 million increase to Westar transmission delivery charges, adding about $4 to an average customer’s bills.
As a result of those two decisions, Westar updated its transmission costs June 21, dropping the amount charged to customers by $18 million.
More: The Topeka Capital-Journal
MICHIGAN
MISO Pegs SSR Costs for UP at Nearly $50M
Upper Peninsula utilities say their customers will unfairly bear the burden of $49.7 million in MISO reliability charges to keep three coal-fired power plants operating.
The RTO filed a new cost calculation for the plants’ system support resource agreements with FERC, and the bills’ first installments are due July 8. Utilities are blaming the state’s customer choice program, which allowed all large mining customers to switch energy suppliers but capped the rest of the state at 10%.
Cloverland Electric Cooperative owes the most, at nearly $11.3 million. Cloverland CEO Dan Dasho estimated that each customer would have to pay an additional $17 to $20 a month for the next 14 months to satisfy the bill.
More: Midwest Energy News
Ann Arbor Eyes More Solar to Combat Climate Change
Ann Arbor has unveiled a plan to cut the city’s carbon emissions 25% by 2025, aiming to add the equivalent of 2.4 MW in solar installations every year over the next decade.
The City Council unanimously approved a resolution that supports solar-friendly measures, including instructing city departments to abide by the Clean Energy Coalition’s Solar Ready Community guidelines.
More: MLive
Consumers Energy Contests Taxable Value of Wind Farm
Consumers Energy is challenging the tax assessment of its 111-MW Cross Winds Energy Park in Tuscola County, where several other wind farms are also seeking reductions in their property tax payments.
The utility filed petitions with the Tax Tribunal, arguing that the assessed value of the $250 million wind farm was too high and asking for refunds for overpayment.
NextEra Energy Resources has filed a similar petition regarding their Tuscola I and Tuscola II windfarms. Tuscola County Controller Mike Hoagland said the assessed values of “most, if not all” the county’s wind turbines are being challenged.
More: Tuscola County Advertiser
MINNESOTA
Governor Vows to Appeal Fed Ruling on Energy Rule
Gov. Mark Dayton said his state will ask the full panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear its appeal of a lower court ruling that the state’s clean energy law illegally regulates out-of-state energy companies.
A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit upheld a ruling that the state’s law, which restricted electricity imports from power plants that increase the state’s greenhouse gases, was unconstitutional.
More: Star Tribune
NEW YORK
Entergy Forced to Shut Down Indian Point Because of Leak
A week after it came back into service following a three-month outage, Entergy once again shut down Unit 2 at its Indian Point nuclear plant so workers could repair a leaking water intake pipe.
The leak in the cooling-water intake was unrelated to the problem that Entergy encountered with damaged baffle bolts, which required the recent protracted outage to repair. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed the plant’s operators for the latest in a series of problems at the twin-reactor complex.
“This is yet another sign that the aging and wearing away of important components at the facility are having a direct and unacceptable impact on safety and is further proof that the plant is not a reliable generation resource,” Cuomo said.
More: The Journal News
NORTH CAROLINA
Senate Passes Bill Banning Wind Farms
The Senate passed a bill that will prohibit wind turbines from being erected in the central and eastern portions of the state, threating two proposed wind farms with a combined output of 400 MW.
Sen. Harry Brown (R-Onslow County), the bill’s sponsor, said the wind turbines present a danger to low-flying aircraft, especially military jets and helicopters operating out of the several large bases, including Fort Bragg and Cherry Point Marine Air Station. “Anything we can do to protect them is important,” he said.
A Department of Defense spokesman, however, said Brown’s legislative effort was done without any consultation from the military. “We have not officially been engaged or involved with North Carolina regarding the latest proposed revisions to state law,” Lt. Col. James B. Brindle said.
More: WUNC; Coastal Review Online; The News & Observer
Duke Energy Progress Proposes Rate Cuts
Duke Energy Progress has proposed to cut rates for its 1.35 million customers to reflect lower energy costs.
The proposal, made last week to the Utilities Commission, includes some rate increases and some decreases on various components of its service.
Overall, residential customers would see a 4.9% drop; industrial consumers, 5.7%; and commercial customers, 6.3%. The rates would go into effect on Dec. 1.
More: The News & Observer
NORTH DAKOTA
PSC Approves 100-MW NextEra Wind Farm
The Public Service Commission last week approved a proposed $153 million wind farm and associated electric transmission line in Oliver and Morton counties. The three-member panel unanimously approved the project’s siting application, clearing the way for construction to start.
A NextEra Energy subsidiary is developing the wind farm, which will include up to 48 turbines and produce up to 100 MW of power. The project also includes a 4.5-mile, $11.4 million transmission line to connect the wind farm to the grid.
More: The Associated Press
July Vote on Brady Wind II Project Appears Likely
The Public Service Commission may vote as early as next month on the 72-turbine Brady Wind Energy Center II project. The PSC has meetings scheduled for July 6 and July 20.
Commissioner Brian Kalk said the commission did not have many additional questions for representatives of Brady Wind, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy.
The PSC has already approved Brady Wind I, the first phase of the project, which consists of 87 turbines and a 19-mile transmission line.
More: The Dickinson Press
OHIO
Kasich Sends PUCO Nominee to Senate
Gov. John Kasich has nominated energy industry attorney Howard Petricoff to fill a vacant seat on the Public Utilities Commission, which spurred Senate President Keith Faber, a Republican, to call for hearings into the Democratic nominee’s record.
Petricoff recently retired as head of the energy section of a large Columbus law firm and had many competitive retail energy suppliers as clients. Faber said Petricoff’s legal work “raised questions about his ability to make neutral decisions given his past activism.”
If Petricoff is confirmed by the Senate, PUCO would have two Republicans, two independents and one Democrat. State law mandates that no party can have more than three of the five seats on the commission, but it does not require at least one member of each party.
More: The Columbus Dispatch; Columbus Business First
PENNSYLVANIA
Proposed Wind Farm Prompts Raucous Hearing
An overflow audience of nearly 300 residents turned out to debate a zoning proposal by a subsidiary of Iberdrola Renewables to build 37 wind turbines on 266 acres in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County.
The crowd, mostly hostile to the proposal, jeered representatives of Iberdrola and the Sierra Club, which supports the wind project. The 525-foot-high turbines and blades would be built on land leased from the Bethlehem Authority, the financial arm of the town’s water business. It would be located less than a mile of several homes.
The zoning hearing is set to resume July 14.
More: The Morning Call
RHODE ISLAND
Renewable Energy Bills Progressed in Session
Bills aimed to block a natural gas power plant and to shift a wind project’s interconnection costs to ratepayers failed in the legislative session, but other proposals favored by clean energy advocates moved forward, including an extension of the state’s renewable portfolio standard from 14.5% by 2019 to 38.5% by 2035.
The legislature also extended the Renewable Energy Fund to 2022, which provides grants and loans to install renewable-energy systems.
More: Providence Journal
SOUTH DAKOTA
County Rebuffs Deep Bore Waste Experiment
The sponsors of a federally funded experiment to explore deep underground storage of nuclear waste will have to search for a new site.
Spink County turned away technology development company Battelle from conducting experiments that involve drilling as much as 3 miles deep into bedrock to test storing waste in boreholes. The experiment wouldn’t involve any radioactive waste, but wary residents expressed fear the tests would increase the chances their area would eventually be chosen for a waste well.
“It was a good spot to try and do our science experiment, so we’re disappointed we couldn’t work something out with them,” a Battelle spokesman said. “But we understand.”
More: The Associated Press
TEXAS
LP&L Board OKs Proposed Budget
Lubbock Power & Light’s Electric Utility Board has proposed a 2% increase in customer bills and $70.9 million in infrastructure improvements. The budget will be presented this summer to the Lubbock City Council for final approval.
The rate increase would pay for the projected $333 million worth of capital improvements LP&L plans in the next six years, largely in preparation for the switch to ERCOT in 2019, when the city’s wholesale contract with Xcel Energy expires.
The inner transmission loop will be upgraded to 69 kV and the outer loop to 115 kV as part of the infrastructure improvements.
More: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
VIRGINIA
Dominion Begins Construction on Greensville Plant
Less than a week after obtaining its air permit from the Air Pollution Control Board, Dominion Virginia Power began construction on its 1,588-MW Greensville County Power Station. The company said it expects the $1.3 billion plant to go into service by 2019.
Dominion says the power station will be a major boost for the region’s economy, with up to $8 million in property taxes paid to Greensville County in its first year of operation. The company also said its customers will save about $2 billion over the plant’s expected 36-year life, as the company will not need to purchase power on the market.
“The air board has approved and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued a very strict permit, which will require that our station be one of the most efficient and environmentally protective natural-gas fueled power stations in the world,” Dominion’s Pamela F. Faggert said.
More: PennEnergy