Report Cites Emissions Drop in Nine-State RGGI
A new report by the Acadia Center says that carbon emissions in the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative compact have dropped 37% since the program began in 2008.
Part I of group’s “RGGI Status Report” found that emissions have decreased in each of the last five years. Electricity prices across the region have decreased by 3.4% on average since RGGI took effect, while electricity prices in other states have increased by 7.2%, according to the report.
RGGI states have reduced emissions by 16% more than other states and seen 3.6% more economic growth since the initiative launched, the report adds.
More: Acadia Center
CALIFORNIA
Survey Shows Most Residents Support Climate Measures
A majority of likely voters say they are willing to pay more for electricity generated by renewable resources to help reduce global warming, according to a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.
The survey also found that voters approve of the 10-year-old law requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and would support additional efforts to curtail emissions. Still, more than half of those surveyed had never heard of the state’s cap-and-trade program.
More: San Francisco Chronicle
Group Wants Waste Storage Included in San Onofre Review
A citizens group is asking the State Lands Commission to expand its environmental impact review of the San Onofre nuclear station’s decommissioning to include plans for long-term storage of nuclear waste at the shorefront facility.
Southern California Edison’s application to the agency makes no mention of its plans to indefinitely store spent fuel in containers located 100 feet from the beach. “It’s just in a really bad spot,” Ray Lutz, of Citizens Oversight, told the commission at its first public hearing on the decommissioning process. “And now we find out that that isn’t even part of the review of this project.”
A SoCalEd representative said the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a license for a new storage facility at the site. The utility has proposed the EQR cover only two of four phases of the process; spent fuel storage is addressed in phase 3.
More: KPBS
COLORADO
Boulder Planning Board Approves Annexation Package
The City of Boulder’s Planning Board voted unanimously last week to recommend the annexation of 16 city-adjacent properties, part of the city’s effort to create its own municipal electric utility.
The bid to annex the properties, containing Xcel Energy facilities and customers, stems from a Public Utilities Commission ruling in November that partially rejected Boulder’s municipalization application. The commission ruled that the city could not force Xcel to sell or share facilities that also served residents outside the city’s limits.
The annexation package now goes before the City Council as the city prepares a new application for the PUC. However, Boulder and Xcel are also engaged in settlement negotiations that could bring an end to the city’s plan, which was spurred by its desire to get all of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030.
More: Daily Camera
CONNECTICUT
Groups Criticize Natural Gas Conversion at Bridgeport Plant
Environmental groups criticized the $550 million conversion of a coal-fired power plant in Bridgeport to natural gas, saying it may actually be worse for the climate.
Environmental and community groups across New England said in a report that using natural gas until more renewable energy is available provides no gains and may actually worsen climate change. The report claims that the amount of methane leaked into the atmosphere from the extraction of natural gas is worse for the climate than burning coal.
PSEG Power has agreed to replace the coal-powered Unit 3 of Bridgeport Harbor station with a 485-MW gas-fired plant.
More: New Haven Register
KENTUCKY
IEFFA Recommends Shuttering Coal Plant
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis is recommending that a coal-fired power plant in the state be closed as soon as possible.
In a study, the organization said both units at the Elmer Smith Station in Owensboro should be shut down because the plant is “long past its prime” and is a financial drain on Owensboro Municipal Utilities ratepayers. The report was completed at the request of the Ohio River Valley chapter of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.
“Tens of millions of dollars of new investment will be needed to keep the plant running and, using the utility’s own analyses, shows that retail rates will increase by 20% by 2018 and 80% by 2025 if both units at Elmer Smith are not retired,” IEEFA Director of Resource Planning David Schlissel said.
More: Messenger-Inquirer
EKPC Files with PSC to Build 60-Acre Solar Facility
East Kentucky Power Cooperative has submitted an application with the Public Service Commission for permission to build an 8.5-MW solar energy facility in Clark County.
The proposed $17.7 million project calls for the installation of 32,000 photovoltaic panels on 60 acres next to EKPC’s offices.
A utility spokesperson said the solar facility would be funded through New Clean Energy Renewable Energy Bonds from the U.S. Energy Department, and retail customers will be able to receive monthly bill credits if they buy a 25-year, $460 license in exchange for a share of the facility’s generating capacity.
More: The Winchester Sun
MICHIGAN
State Energy Agency Backs ATC Plan for Removal of SSR
The state Agency for Energy said it backs a plan from American Transmission Co. to reconfigure its system in the Upper Peninsula, which would eliminate payments to a 60-year-old coal-fired power plant that it says costs ratepayers $7.3 million each year.
The agency, in a letter to MISO, endorsed ATC’s plan, which would also revise its system operating guide for the UP. The plan would eliminate the need for a system support resource (SSR) agreement to the White Pine power plant.
UP ratepayers have been making SSR payments for the operation of White Pine Unit 1 for more than two years and would be slated to continue payments until 2020. The state has challenged several other SSR agreements, which provide for payments to generators to continue running for reliability.
More: WJMN
NEBRASKA
Saline County Approves Aksamit’s 74-MW Wind Farm
The Saline County Commission granted Aksamit Resource Management’s request to build a 74-MW wind farm southwest of Lincoln.
Construction is expected to begin after harvest this fall, with the turbines operational by Nov. 1, 2017. Aksamit is in negotiations to sell the wind farm’s power, but the company has declined to say with whom.
It is the first of three wind energy projects Aksamit plans for the state. The company plans to spend about $440 million on a nearby 300-MW farm and a 76-MW project.
More: Lincoln Journal Star
NEVADA
NVE Pushes Net Metering Grandfathering Proposal
NV Energy last week asked the Public Utilities Commission to allow some rooftop solar customers to receive the more generous net metering rates that were phased out at the start of the year.
Under the proposed change, customers who installed their panels or receive application approvals before the end of 2015 would be eligible to get compensated under the original net metering terms for a period of 20 years.
The utility’s request to grandfather some projects under the old rules comes as the state Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments over whether to allow a ballot initiative that would restore the original rates to all current and future customers.
More: Las Vegas Review-Journal
NORTH DAKOTA
Politicos, Regulators Fear More Coal Plants to Close
Great River Energy’s announcement that it would close a coal-fired power plant in the next year is just the first blow against the state’s coal industry, warned a congressman and a state utility regulator.
“I don’t think we can presume this is an outlier,” said U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, a former state utility regulator and an energy adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump. He said he feared what has happened in the Appalachian region, where local economies have been hurt by the coal plant closures, will happen in the state.
Public Service Commissioner Randy Christmann acknowledged that low natural gas prices contributed to Great River’s decision to close its plant, but he pointed to competition from “heavily subsidized” wind energy. “I just think we’ve gotten to a point where they’re overly subsidized,” Christmann said.
More: Grand Forks Herald
TEXAS
EPE Kills $11 Charge on Rooftop Solar Customers
El Paso Electric will withdraw its proposal to charge customers with rooftop solar panels an additional $11/month under a settlement with a coalition of solar-energy companies and environmental advocates and the city of El Paso. The agreement was filed with the Public Utility Commission.
EPE withdrew the proposal after almost a year of claiming solar customers were more expensive to service and should be subject to an additional fee. Approval of the agreement by the PUC is likely to happen in the next couple months.
The battle between consumer advocates and the investor-owned utility began last year when EPE filed a rate case seeking to cover $1.3 billion in infrastructure investments. Among the proposals was an additional charge for the more than 1,770 Texas solar power users in the company’s service area.
More: The Texas Observer
WYOMING
State, Japanese Partner to Research Clean-Coal Technology
Gov. Matt Mead signed a memorandum of understanding last week with the president of the Japan Coal Energy Center, calling for cooperation between the consortium of Japanese companies and state experts in researching clean-coal technology.
Mead says he expects to see a conference in the state within a year that would allow Japanese researchers to work with researchers from the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources on coal issues. The state has been pushing to try to gain access to ports in the Pacific Northwest to export coal to Asia.
More: The Associated Press