Dominion CEO: Despite Wisconsin plant closure, nuclear key to climate goals

Posted on 02/21/2013 by Greenwire

Dominion’s Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin will close this spring. (Photo by Lenka Reznicek via Creative Commons)

By Hannah Northey

The president and CEO of Dominion said Wednesday that nuclear power will play a key role in meeting President Obama’s goal of lowering carbon emissions — despite the president’s silence on the energy source during his State of the Union speech.

“When President Obama … indicates his priority is decreasing greenhouse gases, we have to pay attention to this,” Thomas Farrell said at a Platts nuclear energy conference in Washington, D.C. “And when he establishes this national agenda without mentioning the role of nuclear power … we have to pay attention to that, too.”

Obama dedicated a significant portion of his address to energy and climate change but drew the ire of some industry groups and lawmakers for not mentioning coal, nuclear power or hot-topic issues like the Keystone XL oil pipeline project (E&E Daily, Feb. 13).

Any environmental movement that is “anti-carbon” will also need to be “pro-nuclear,” Farrell said, noting that activists like James Hansen of NASA are embracing nuclear energy. →

Supporters of military biofuels program gear up for battle

Posted on 11/21/2012 by Greenwire

The USNS Henry J. Kaiser is refueled with a 50/50 biofuel blend during training exercises in the Pacific Ocean in July. (Photo via U.S. Navy)

By Annie Snider

With the Senate poised to begin debate on the defense policy bill after the Thanksgiving recess, a coalition of senators is gearing up for battle against a pair of controversial amendments targeting the military’s biofuels program.

Opposition to the two amendments — one that would prevent the Defense Department from making operational purchases of alternative fuels that cost more than traditional petroleum and one that would block the Navy’s portion of an interagency plan to invest $510 million in building commercial-scale biofuel refineries — began with Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) this spring. Now, according to a Democratic Senate aide, the core group opposing the amendments has grown to roughly a half a dozen senators. →

Low electricity prices lead Dominion to decommission Wisconsin reactor

Posted on 10/23/2012 by Greenwire

Kewaunee Power Station (Photo via Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

By Gabriel Nelson and Hannah Northey

Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Resources Inc. said Monday it will shut down and decommission the Kewaunee Power Station near Green Bay, which would make it the first U.S. nuclear reactor to be permanently retired since 1998.

The company said the decision was purely based on economics, which may signal trouble for other nuclear power plants at a time when cheap natural gas and the slowly recovering economy are holding down electricity prices in many parts of the country. →

Minnesota lawmaker aims to roll back EPA regional haze powers

Posted on 10/11/2012 by Greenwire

A taconite plant in Silver Bay, Minnesota. (Photo by anthonylibrarian via Creative Commons)

By Manuel Quinones

Minnesota Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack is pushing for legislation to roll back the EPA’s ability to promulgate federal air visibility guidelines.

Cravaack’s H.R. 6507 would compel the agency to approve Minnesota Pollution Control Agency plans for dealing with regional haze. The agency would also temporarily be prohibited from pre-empting state standards.

The legislation focuses on processing facilities for taconite, a certain type of iron deposit that helps fuel the economy in Cravaack’s northeastern Minnesota district. In August, EPA proposed rules targeting emissions from those facilities.

The agency said best available retrofit technology, or BART, “is a requirement of EPA’s regional haze rule which has not been satisfied by Minnesota or Michigan for its subject taconite plants.” →

Federal appeals court tosses EPA cross-state pollution rule

Posted on 08/21/2012 by Greenwire

By Jeremy P. Jacobs

A federal appeals court Tuesday threw out U.S. EPA’s latest attempt at regulating harmful air emissions that cross state lines, a significant blow to the Obama administration.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, or CSAPR, be remanded to the agency and instructed EPA to try again. In the meantime, the court left in place the Clean Air Interstate Rule, or CAIR, which the same court ruled in 2008 doesn’t do enough to protect public health.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority that EPA has overstepped its Clean Air Act authority.

“In this case,” he wrote, “we conclude that EPA has transgressed statutory boundaries.” →

Wisconsin utility to close coal-fired units in EPA settlement

Posted on 06/30/2012 by Greenwire

Three coal-fired units at the Alma Station (at center) will be shut down under terms of an EPA settlement. (Photo via USGS)

By Jeremy P. Jacobs

A Wisconsin utility will spend roughly $150 million on installing new air emissions control technology, permanently retire three coal-fired units and invest another $5 million in environmental improvement projects near the plants under a legal settlement U.S. EPA announced Friday.

The Dairyland Power Cooperative will also pay a $950,000 civil penalty, EPA and the Department of Justice said.

The agency emphasized that the settlement, which affects the utility’s three largest units, will lead to significant health gains through reductions in sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. →

ALEC disclosure language in Illinois fracking bill

Posted on 05/03/2012 by Greenwire

By Ellen M. Gilmer

Hydraulic fracturing rules moving through the Illinois Statehouse this session have taken their cue from model legislation supported by an influential conservative think tank.

The Illinois chemical disclosure legislation, which passed unanimously through the state Senate last week, includes language that copies almost verbatim a new Texas law and a subsequent model bill from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

The language originated in Texas in 2011 and requires well operators to reveal chemicals used in the fracking process, which shoots sand, water and chemicals into the ground to release gas. An exception, heavily favored by the industry, allows companies to protect qualified chemical concoctions as trade secrets. Those exceptions can be challenged by certain landowners and state agencies.
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