The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding off on work for the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota while it examines whether to reform how tribal views are considered for such projects.
Last week, the corps issued a joint statement with the Justice Department and Interior Department calling upon pipeline owner Energy Transfer Partners to voluntarily stop work on private land around Lake Oahe. The statement came in the wake of a ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed construction after the Obama administration halted it.
Officials “look forward to a serious discussion … on whether there should be nationwide reform on the tribal consultation process for these types of infrastructure projects,” the statement said.
More: The Associated Press
Countries Close Deal Phasing out HFCs
At a summit in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on Saturday, more than 150 countries sealed an agreement to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), potent greenhouse gases used as refrigerants.
Under the agreement, most developing countries will be required to begin their plans by 2019 and freeze their HFC levels by 2024. Developed nations, including the U.S., will be required to begin by 2024. The European Union adopted a measure to reduce its HFC emissions in 2014.
HFCs were designed to replace chlorofluorocarbons, which were phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol because of the damage they caused to the ozone layer. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the Kigali agreement as a “monumental step forward” and said it would avoid as much as a half degree Celsius of global warming.
More: Financial Times; The Guardian
US Gov’t Makes Largest Renewable Purchase Yet
The U.S. federal government made its largest ever purchase of renewable energy Friday when it signed a power purchase agreement for the 150-MW Mesquite 3 solar power station in Maricopa County, Ariz. The power from the desert solar array will supply one-third of the power demands of 14 naval installations in California, including San Diego’s naval base and the Marines’ Camp Pendleton.
The Navy will buy the power at a fixed price for 25 years from owner Sempra Energy. “To me, the essence of solar power is, you know what the price of the fuel is going to be for the next 25 years, or more,” said Dennis McGinn, the Navy’s assistant secretary for energy, installations and environment. “It’s going to be reliable, it’s going to be cheaper than what we’re paying for brown power and it just diversifies our energy sources for these bases.”
The Energy Department says the growth of large-scale solar plants in the Southwest is a result of $4.6 billion in investments it made as part of the stimulus legislation passed in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse.
More: The Washington Post
Bay Appoints Suzanne Krolikowski as FERC ALJ
FERC Chairman Norman Bay on Monday announced the appointment of Judge Suzanne Krolikowski as an administrative law judge.
Krolikowski has served as an ALJ for the Social Security Administration since June 2015. She received her bachelor’s in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her law degree and a master’s degree in ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I am pleased to welcome Judge Krolikowski to FERC,” Bay said. “Her legal and technical background and experience is impressive and will [be] an asset to the FERC bench.”
More: FERC