The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will take bids Aug. 19 for the rights to lease nearly 80,000 acres of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maryland for wind energy projects. It will be the sixth commercial offshore wind energy lease awarded by the federal government, after three off of New England and one each off Virginia and Delaware. Sixteen companies have been qualified to bid on the Maryland Wind Energy Area, which could support between 850 MW and 1,450 MW of commercial wind generation. The area is about 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City, Md.
More: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, The Baltimore Sun
FERC OKs Settlement in 2011 Southwest Blackout
Arizona Public Service Co. will spend $3.25 million in a settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over its role in a Sept. 8, 2011 blackout that left more than 5 million people in California, Arizona and Mexico without power for up to 12 hours.
A joint FERC/North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) examination of the incident found that APS violated NERC reliability standards. Since the event, APS has worked with regulatory and industry organizations to make improvements, FERC said.
The company will pay $1 million each to the U.S. Treasury and NERC, and spend $1.25 million on reliability investments. “APS’ reliability enhancements will improve the reliability of the Western Interconnection and are valued at substantially more than the $1.25 million credit granted,” Acting FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said.
More: FERC
SCOTUS Declines to Hear Mo. Cost-Recovery Case
The Supreme Court said it will not consider Kansas City Power & Light Co.’s appeal of a lower court ruling that denied the company federally approved transmission costs.
The company incurred the costs in moving power 500 miles from a natural gas-fired plant in the Mississippi Delta to customers in western Missouri. At issue are transmission costs associated with the Crossroads plant, which was originally built as a merchant generator but was folded into the rate base after KCP&L’s parent company was unable to sell it.
The plant only operates in the summer, but the Missouri Public Service Commission earlier ruled that it had to pay transmission access fees on a year-round basis. The commission approved the purchase of power from the plant but wouldn’t approve the estimated $5 million annual transmission costs, saying they were not just and reasonable.
More: E&E Publishing
House Approves Move to Stop NYISO Capacity Zone
The House passed a bipartisan amendment to block a new capacity zone in the New York ISO last week as part of the 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.
News of the new zone, which would increase residential energy costs, sparked protests after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved it in January. Republican Rep. Chris Gibson said he and Democratic Rep. Sean Maloney introduced the amendment to protect residential consumers. “We will not relent in our efforts to prevent this agency from doing further damage to families and the economy of the Hudson Valley, where people are already struggling to make ends meet,” Gibson said in a news release. A Senate vote is expected in the fall.
Proponents of the new capacity zone, which went into effect May 1, hope it will spur the construction of new generation below a transmission bottleneck.
More: Register-Star
Nuclear Expert Tapped for DOE Slot
President Obama has nominated Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a nuclear proliferation and defense policy official, for Deputy Secretary of Energy. Sherwood-Randall is currently the White House coordinator for defense policy and has also acted as a foreign policy expert. In addition to working on nuclear weapons policy and strategy, she also will be wading into the issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing.
More: The New York Times
DOE to Start Cleanup of Hanford’s “Atomic Man” Site
The site of a 1976 plutonium explosion at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state is slated for cleanup this summer. Worker Harold McCluskey was exposed to the highest dose of radiation from the chemical element americium on record — 500 times the safe standard — in the accident. Americium is a byproduct of plutonium.
McCluskey, then 64, became known as the “Atomic Man” after the incident. He was put into an isolation unit, where he stayed for five months. His body’s radiation level fell by 80 percent within a year. He died in 1987 of heart disease, said to be unrelated to the accident. Cleanup of the “McCluskey Room” is expected to be completed by 2016.
More: Prince George Citizen
Missouri Rep. Files Bill to Hobble EPA Rulemaking
Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) last week filed a bill that would halt every Environmental Protection Agency regulation now in the works and mandate the review of all other EPA rules. If passed, the bill would effectively halt EPA action on any of its rules until after the review.
Graves, chairman of the Small Business Committee, is incensed over the EPA’s proposed “Waters of the United States” rule, which would redefine federal jurisdiction over lakes and streams covered by the Clean Water Act. Many of Graves’ constituents are farmers who could be impacted by any change in water laws. Graves’ “Stop the EPA Act,” would also hamstring the EPA’s recent emissions rules covering power plants.
More: The Hill
Senate to Consider Bay, LaFleur
The Senate is scheduled to vote today on the confirmation of Norman Bay to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a new term for Acting Chair Cheryl LaFleur. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Bay’s nomination last month under a deal with the White House that would delay Bay’s ascension to the chairmanship for nine months.
More: LaFleur to Remain Acting FERC Chair for up to 1 Year in Senate Deal with White House