PBF Energy, owner of refineries in Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio, is acquiring its first refinery on the Gulf Coast.
The company will pay $322 million for the 189,000-barrel-per-day Chalmette refinery near New Orleans. It purchased the refinery from Exxon Mobil and Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.
PBF owns refineries in Delaware City, Del., Paulsboro, N.J., and Toledo, Ohio. It is involved in contentious negotiations with Delaware regulators over its permit to use Delaware River water for cooling operations at the Delaware City refinery.
More: The News Journal
SolarCity to Invest $200 Million in Solar Gardens in Minnesota
The country’s largest solar panel installer, SolarCity, will spend $200 million building 100 community solar gardens in Minnesota, offering their power to apartment dwellers, a segment of the population that has been left out of the rooftop solar market. SolarCity will team up with Sunrise Energy Ventures, which will market the output.
SolarCity is taking advantage of a 2013 law that authorized community-led solar projects for Xcel Energy’s 1.2 million customers. Other companies have gotten into the game in Minnesota, including SunEdison and SoCore Energy, but they have mainly focused on signing up corporate and institutional customers.
Developers are hoping to cash in on a 30% federal solar investment tax credit that expires in 2016. SolarCity’s plan is to build 100 MW of solar facilities in clusters of sites. Xcel is balking at this, saying that the law prohibits any facility from being more than 1 MW.
More: Star Tribune
Murray Energy Recalls Laid off Coal Workers
Murray Energy last week announced it had recalled 262 workers who had been laid off in March at its Monongalia County Coal subsidiary near Blacksville, W.Va.
CEO Robert Murray said the coal industry is still in “severe economic hardship” and said most of the blame for that can be laid at the doorstep of the Obama administration’s policies and a trend to switch from coal to natural gas by large generating companies.
More: Associated Press
FirstEnergy Moves to Keep Bruce Mansfield Plant Open
FirstEnergy is moving forward with a project to build a dewatering station for coal ash slurry produced at its Bruce Mansfield plant in Beaver County, Pa., in order to keep the massive coal-fired plant open.
The company is facing a Dec. 31, 2016, deadline to close its coal-ash slurry impoundment at the three-unit 2,714-MW plant. If the plant is to remain in operation, it needs to dewater the coal ash before it is disposed. FirstEnergy said it had been waiting for the PJM Base Residual Auction to see if there was a market for the plant’s future output, but the auction was delayed until August. Bruce Mansfield failed to clear the past two auctions.
FirstEnergy said it had to make a decision on the dewatering system now in order for it to be completed ahead of the deadline.
More: Pittsburgh Business Times
FirstEnergy Teams with 2 Companies to Re-open Manufacturing Plant
FirstEnergy and two nuclear waste storage companies are teaming up to re-open a Canonsburg, Pa., manufacturing facility that GE-Hitachi vacated last year.
FirstEnergy spent $1.3 million to upgrade the facility, which will serve as the base for maintenance and repair personnel serving the company’s nuclear and coal-fired generating units in the region. The workers will share the plant with the company’s new partners, Custom Nuclear Fabrication and Areva, who will use it to manufacture containers used to store spent nuclear fuel.
More: Tribune-Review
Dominion Applies for Rezoning for Controversial Tx Line
Dominion Virginia Power last week filed for a rezoning permit from James City County to construct a switching station as part of a controversial transmission line that crosses the James River. The county and other parties took Dominion to the state Supreme Court to establish that the county had permitting authority over the utility’s project.
Dominion argued unsuccessfully in the courts that the State Corporation Commission, and not the county, should have authority over siting decisions. It says the line is necessary for system reliability. The county and other parties have argued that the line will destroy scenic views along the river.
The county commission will consider the application and then host a public hearing on it before issuing any final decision. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.
More: Williamsburg Yorktown Daily
Sierra Club to Sue NJ’s DEP over PSEG’s Mercer Station
The Sierra Club says it will sue the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for allowing PSEG Fossil’s Mercer Generating Station to operate on expired permits and with an outdated cooling water system.
“For far too long, the DEP has allowed the Mercer Generating Station to pollute the river and kill more than 70 million fish and fish larvae per year,” said Jeff Tittel, Sierra Club’s state director. Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, called on the company to upgrade its cooling system or shut down the plant. “If PSEG is unwilling to install modern cooling towers to stop this ecological damage, they should shut down this fossil fuel dinosaur,” he said.
PSEG wouldn’t comment on the pending litigation but said it has spent millions of dollars to reduce the plant’s impact on aquatic life. It said it is in the process of evaluating federal Clean Water Act regulations and will submit a renewed application.
More: NJ.com
Atlantic City Electric Working with NJ County on Lighting Project
Atlantic City Electric is replacing 900 street lights with light-emitting diode (LED) lamps to save Camden County, N.J., about $100,000/year in lighting costs. The LEDs are expected to last about 20 years, compared to five years for the existing high-pressure sodium lamps.
The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development provided $800,000 for the project.
More: Collingswood Patch