EPA

Life Without Building Block 4

Energy Efficiency under EPA’s Final Clean Power Plan.

Energy efficiency remains the most cost-effective route to compliance with the Clean Power Plan. In the final Clean Power Plan rule issued August 3, 2015, EPA did not include Energy Efficiency in the calculations used to develop state targets. However, EPA and the White House have made it abundantly clear that energy efficiency remains just as viable a compliance option as before.
Byline: 

John Hargrove

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Distributed Generation

Disruptive Technology or Regulatory Challenge?

Distributed generation marks a set of emerging technologies requiring creativity from utilities and regulators in introducing laws, policies, and economic incentives – to ensure that revenue streams are captured and that cost recovery reflects market reality.
Byline: 

Rob Neumann and Ralph Zarumba

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Climate, Carbon, Fuel, and the Future

The view from Oregon and Portland General Electric.

Fortnightly speaks with Jim Piro, president and CEO of Portland General Electric. Piro serves as a member of Oregon’s Global Warming Commission. He’s also active in the Electrification Coalition, a national group of business leaders advocating for policies that support electric vehicles.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

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Is Nuclear Energy Still Viable?

Cheap natural gas is not just hurting coal. It’s doing the same to nuclear.

As the nation strives for cleaner air and less carbon emissions, nuclear – the most promising carbon-free power source – faces stiff competition from natural gas, which is cheap, abundant, and a lot easier to get permitted and built than a conventional reactor.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

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EPA's Clean Power Plan

Charting a Path Forward

With respect to the Clean Power Plan, the question is whether EPA will address the major issues and reinforce its positions in advance of the anticipated legal challenges.
Byline: 

Steven A. Weiler

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High Court Takes Heat Out of Mercury Rule

Ken Silverstein's picture
Submitted by Ken Silverstein on Mon, 2015-06-29 18:14
On Monday, the Supreme Court released its 5-4 decision, which said EPA must take into account the cost of its regulations at the initial stage – the one where it determines that regulation of hazardous emissions from electric power plants would be “appropriate and necessary.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must – first – consider the costs of compliance before fixing a specific cap on mercury emissions. What’s next?

EPA Blesses Fracking

Ken Silverstein's picture
Submitted by Ken Silverstein on Fri, 2015-06-05 17:43
Natural gas producers today have the wind at their backs, with production rising as America turns to cleaner energy. But any misstep could set the industry back, which is why it needs to work closely with the White House and the environmentalists, both of which have real concerns.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent study on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) appears really as just a careful continuation of what it has been saying all along – that the drilling techniques used to retrieve shale gas are pretty safe. Thus, while it hedged a little, EPA emphasized that there’s no “widespread” problems associated with fracking and drinking water supplies.

State Utility Commissioners at Ground Zero

Ken Silverstein's picture
Submitted by Ken Silverstein on Tue, 2015-05-26 13:12
At issue in this new environmental paradigm is whether the states will take the lead, or the federal government. And nowhere is that more relevant than the EPA's Clean Power Plan.

State utility commissioners in all 50 states are under a lot of stress. First, they must formulate and plan for the future of their states’ electrical grids and at the same time, keep their eyes on the developments in Washington and on the EPA whose Clean Power Plan (CPP) is the elephant in their room. It could be argued that they have a job far worse than the Maytag repairman: Instead of having nothing to do, they have everything to do. Currently, they may have the most difficult job in the US.

Constitutional Controversy

Can EPA’s Clean Power Plan Pass Muster?

The Clean Power Plan’s fate may hinge on whether the federal government is seen as usurping states’ rights under the Fifth and Tenth Amendments. Harvard’s Law School professors debate the issue.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

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