Energize Weekly, March 17, 2021 Climate change – the heat waves, flooding, droughts, and hurricanes it may bring – poses a multibillion-dollar threat to the country’s aging electric grid, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Without significant efforts to upgrade the grid and make it more resilient, the annual cost…
Energize Weekly, March 3, 2021 Xcel Energy – in one of the country’s most sweeping initiatives to reconfigure a gird – has announced an $8 billion plan to double its renewable energy generation and storage in Colorado, add transmission and close all its coal-fired power plants in the state by 2040. The plan, to be…
Energize Weekly, February 24, 2021 The near collapse of Texas’ electric grid was caused in the main by a failure of the natural gas system from the wellhead to pipeline to gas turbine, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA). “Texas has a power shortage because it has a gas shortage,” the…
Energize Weekly, February 17, 2021 European oil companies are continuing their push to reorient and rebrand themselves as comprehensive energy companies and not just producers of oil and natural gas. On Feb. 9, French oil company Total announced it was changing its name to TotalEnergies to reflect a broader strategy of developing renewable energy and…
Energize Weekly, December 16, 2020 Energy efficiency gains slowed to their lowest level in a decade in 2020, and feeling the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, energy efficiency investment is projected to be down 9 percent year-on-year to $227 billion in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Energy intensity, a measure of…
Energize Weekly, November 11, 2020 Election returns on state and local energy issues were both literally and figuratively all over the map last week on issues ranging from renewable energy to oil and gas taxes. Voters in Alaska rejected a tax on oil operations while the industry was denied a tax break in Louisiana. Columbus,…
Energize Weekly, October 28, 2020 As Election Day nears, analysts are starting to focus on what the administration of front-running Joe Biden will mean for energy and find it could accelerate the decline of coal, stabilize near-term oil markets, as well as boost renewables and new jobs. A Biden administration, despite its avowed aim of…
Energize Weekly, September 30, 2020 A growing number of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) have pledged to sharply reduce their carbon emissions or even cut them to zero, but two studies have found a gap between the pledges and those utilities’ performance. Forty-three of the country’s 55 IOUs have emission-reduction targets, and 22 have net-zero or carbon-free…
Energize Weekly, September 16, 2020 In a pair of September rulings, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has undercut the development of clean energy projects, according to environmentalists and a dissenting commissioner. A Sept. 1, FERC decision limited the flexibility of small, renewable energy projects to get certification that assures their electricity will be bought…
Energize Weekly, May 13, 2020 A new front was opened last week in the battle between Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and some of its electric cooperatives, as United Power, its largest member, filed a complaint in a Colorado district court charging subterfuge and breach of contract. Meanwhile on May 18, hearings will open at…
Energize Weekly, April 8, 2020 Faced with the risk of not being able to meet the rigorous staffing requirement for operating nuclear power plants during the ongoing pandemic, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said it is prepared to grant exemptions from work-hour controls. The NRC in a March 28 letter to the industry trade group,…
Energize Weekly, February 26, 2020 The Virginia legislature, on a pair of razor-thin votes, has passed a sweeping energy bill that will bolster renewable generation, energy storage and efforts to set a carbon dioxide cap and trade program. While the Clean Economy Act was the most far-reaching and visible piece of energy legislation at the…
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