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Court Kills Trump Rule on Power Plant Emissions

January 21, 2021

The post Court Kills Trump Rule on Power Plant Emissions appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A federal appeals court has vacated the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama-era greenhouse gas emission standards for power plants. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Jan. 19 said the measure intended to replace those standards, the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, “rested critically on a mistaken reading of the Clean Air Act,” or CAA.

The panel in its ruling said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) recission of the 2015 Clean Power Plan (CPP), and subsequent adoption of the 2019 ACE rule, failed to comply with the CAA. The decision is another blow to the Trump administration’s bid to leave a legacy of deregulation, particularly at the EPA, as it rebukes one of the administration’s highest-profile replacements of Obama-era environmental rules.

The judges among other things found that the ACE rule failed to provide adequate environmental and public health protections.…

With Vogtle Completion in Sight, Southern Company Targets Net-Zero Carbon Emissions

May 31, 2020

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The post With Vogtle Completion in Sight, Southern Company Targets Net-Zero Carbon Emissions appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fresh off the announcement that the final module for Vogtle Unit 3 was placed at the nuclear expansion project in Georgia, Southern Company said on May 27 that it was setting “a long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.”

The announcement was made during Southern Company’s annual stockholders meeting, which was held as an online event this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also reaffirmed its intermediate goal of a 50% reduction of GHG emissions from 2007 levels by 2030.

“I continue to be confident that we are prepared and well-positioned to meet the needs of our customers, employees, communities and investors well into the future and will succeed in the transition to a net-zero carbon future,” Tom Fanning, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company, said in a statement. “As always, we are committed to providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy to the customers we are privileged to serve.”…

BHP, Mitsubishi Partner on Emissions Reduction Technologies

July 29, 2019

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BHP and Mitsubishi Development Pty (MDP) in late June signed a memorandum of understanding for joint research, development, and deployment of greenhouse gas emissions reduction technologies in several countries, including projects with battery storage, solar, and carbon capture and storage (CCS). The agreement, signed in Tokyo, Japan, on June 20, also calls for research into emissions reductions from the lifecycle use of marketed products.

“BHP is committed to accelerating the development of emerging technologies that have the potential to achieve material reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Andrew Mackenzie, BHP’s CEO, in a statement. “Our new collaboration with Mitsubishi Development demonstrates the important role the private sector can play in bringing these technologies to market. Both companies are committed to emissions reductions in a range of industries … our Japanese partners and customers are critical to the development of new technologies and approaches to emissions reductions that stand to benefit countries across the globe.”

BHP has several investments in technologies designed to lower emissions, including trials of light electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries in BHP’s Olympic Dam underground mine fleet of light vehicles, in South Australia.…

Utility Reaches Settlement in Emissions Lawsuit

April 19, 2018

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The Colorado Springs City Council, which also serves as the board for community-owned Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), approved the settlement of a lawsuit brought against the city’s downtown coal-fired Martin Drake Power Plant, an agreement that in part promises CSU will look at options for 100% of its power to come from renewable sources as early as 2030.

The city council—in executive session and without a public vote—approved a $ 425,000 settlement with New Mexico-based environmental group WildEarth Guardians. The group had said thousands of violations of the federal Clean Air Act had occurred at Martin Drake. The settlement was filed April 17 in U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado.

Amy Trinidad, a spokeswoman for the utility, told the Colorado Springs Gazette that CSU denied the allegations in the lawsuit but was still willing to reach a settlement. A bench trial on the suit was originally scheduled to begin in early April, but attorneys in the case informed the court negotiations were underway toward an out-of-court resolution.…

Germany’s New Coalition Government Agrees to Phase Out Coal, but Will Miss 2020 Emissions Targets

March 10, 2018

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Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) members agreed to join their longtime rival and governing partner, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and reluctantly entered into a third grand coalition government on March 4. While this ended months of anxious handwringing following September’s national elections, the entire process was mired in frustration as the prospect of yet another coalition grew more unpopular each day.

While the only idea more unfavorable was another national election (with the fear that rightwing parties would gain even more support), at the ceremony announcing the SPD’s decision to again join the CDU, there was virtually no applause. Much like a resigned patient about to undergo chemotherapy, the general mood among both SPD and CDU party members (and the general population) was one of begrudging willingness without any marked enthusiasm. Following years of coalition experience behind them, neither party seemed excited to rejoin the partnership and, its fair to say, the new ruling coalition is both weaker and more unpopular now than prior to elections.…

Solar-Plus-Storage Could Increase Consumption and Emissions, Study Suggests

February 5, 2017

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Pairing energy storage with rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has been widely touted as the path for greater deployment of renewable energy, but a new study from researchers at the University of Texas suggests doing so may actually increase overall energy consumption and emissions.

The study, “The Impacts of Storing Solar Energy in the Home to Reduce Reliance on the Utility, ” was based on data collected in 2014 by non-profit firm Pecan Street from 99 homes in the Austin, Texas, area with solar PV systems that were mostly in the 3-kW to 6-kW range. The homes did not have storage installed; rather, the study used operational data to estimate the impacts of adding it.

Two models were used, one (which the authors called “target zero”) that sought to keep the connection with the grid as close to 0 kWh as possible (in other words, minimizing both injections and demand), and another (called “minimize power”) that sought to maximize self-generation using forecast data for future demand and generation.…