FERC & Federal

RSS

If Democrats backing a carbon tax agree to use the revenue to reduce personal and corporate income taxes, congressional Republicans could sign on, says Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw, who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. Most economists agree a carbon tax...

Air pollution from electric generation is responsible for more than 29,000 premature deaths annually in PJM states, more than any other air pollution source, according to a new study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Source: MIT) The study found that fine particulates (PM2.5) and ozone pollution from electric...

(Source: NRC) The NRC grades each reactor based on data submitted quarterly by plant operators (“performance indicators”) and inspections by resident inspectors and regional staff. Its mid-year assessment places each operating unit within one of four levels of regulatory response, with the agency’s scrutiny increasing as plant performance declines:  The...

DOE Chief: ‘Incumbents’ Should Embrace Change "The future is not always 10 years away,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz warned in his first major policy address. Speaking at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy, Moniz discussed President Obama’s climate action plan and said industry change will be driven by extreme weather,...

Coal boosters who hope carbon capture technology will ensure the fuel’s future will find little support in a new report conducted for planners in the Eastern Interconnection. EPA’s proposed New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gases will likely make it impossible to permit new coal-fired generation that doesn’t include Carbon...

The Markets and Reliability Committee approved agenda items 2, 4 and 5 unanimously Thursday. Details are below: 2. PJM MANUALS A. Manual 28: Operating Agreement Accounting Reason for change: Revises the manual to reflect Tariff changes regarding lost opportunity cost compensation, as approved by FERC in docket ER13-1200. The changes...

PJM would create rules allowing batteries, flywheels and other advanced energy storage technologies to participate in its capacity market under a problem statement presented to the Markets and Reliability Commission on first reading Thursday. The proposal was introduced by Janette Kessler Dudley of Demansys Energy, which aggregates commercial and industrial...

Who says Congress can't pass energy legislation? Two bills approved with bipartisan support and signed by President Obama this month may open PJM to new generation from a renewable energy source many thought was fully exploited: hydropower. (Source: US Department of Energy) The legislation streamlines regulations on small hydropower sites,...

PJM officials gave the Transmission Expansion Advisory Committee a status report Thursday on their analysis of the 26 proposals for correcting stability problems at Artificial Island in South Jersey. PJM’s first competitive transmission project under FERC Order 1000 attracted proposals from five utilities and three independent developers. The proposals ranged...