Frontlines

A guide to the galaxy of low growth, high interest rates, and the dark side of the Force.

Many executives are hoping to avoid a repeat of the 1970s, when first hit the big screen, and when inflation, nuclear cost overruns, and diminishing returns came calling in an economic climate that today's markets threaten to emulate.

Power Measurement

How the Clean Air Mercury Rule will affect coal prices.

In March 2005, Acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Steve Johnson, signed into law the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR), the first regulation to reduce mercury emissions from power plants in the United States. When fully implemented, CAMR will reduce electric utility mercury emissions by almost 70 percent from the 48 tons that were emitted in 1999.

Commission Watch

Power System Planning:

Who gets paid (and how much) for backing up the system?

Ed Krapels-the electric industry consultant from Boston who helped dream up the initial idea of a monster, undersea direct-current cable (the Neptune project) to bring cheap Canadian power south to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States-thinks he knows now why the merchant transmission business is in the toilet.

Technology Corridor

And why North American power plants should take note.

Electromagnetic terrorism has huge implications for the international power industry. Manuel W. Wik, chief engineer and strategic specialist on future defense science and technology programs at the Defense Materiel Administration, Stockholm, writes: