FCC Still Weighing Broadband Plan 
posted 9/3/2010 

from The Wall Street Journal 

Federal Communications Commission officials said Chairman Julius Genachowski is still considering a proposal to re-regulate broadband access under more-stringent rules designed for phone services, and asked for more comment on rules to ensure equal treatment of Internet traffic.

The officials' remarks Wednesday came in response to speculation that the agency had abandoned an effort to classify broadband networks as common carriers under Title 2 of the Communications Act, in the face of telecommunications-industry opposition.

A senior FCC official said in an email Wednesday that Mr. Genachowski had "absolutely not" abandoned the approach. "All options remain on the table," the official added.


Click here to view the full article:  FCC Still Weighing Broadband Plan

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Global warming heats up a nuclear energy renaissance
posted 8/13/2010

from The Christian Science Monitor

Public and political acceptance of nuclear power as a logical large-scale alternative to fossil fuel is higher than it has been in a generation. Once mainly associated with mishaps like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl – not to mention bumbling nuclear plant worker Homer Simpson – the energy source now has support from 62 percent of Americans, a Gallup Poll found in March. That's the highest since Gallup began asking about the topic in 1994.

Even former foes... [are] influenced more by the immediately tangible environmental consequences of greenhouse gases than by possible radiation disasters.

Click here to view the full article:  Global Warming Heats Up

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Smart-grid projects hit speed bumps
posted 8/12/2010

from cnet.com

As part of the economic stimulus plan, billions of dollars will be spent by utilities and the federal government on modernizing the grid, with a significant emphasis on installing two-way smart meters. These meters are meant to bring benefits, such as giving consumers more information on electricity usage and making it easier to locate problems during a power outage.

But as public utility commissions assess these projects, regulators are scrutinizing the costs of the technology and weighing that against potential benefits to ratepayers.

Click here to view the full article:  Smart-grid projects hit speed bumps

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Grid Is Vulnerable to Cyber-Attacks
posted 8/3/2010

from The Wall Street Journal

Computer networks controlling the electric grid are plagued with security holes that could allow intruders to redirect power delivery and steal data, the Energy Department warned in a recent report.

Many of the security vulnerabilities are strikingly basic and fixable problems, including a failure to install software security patches or poor password management. Many of the fixes would be inexpensive, according to the Idaho National Lab, an Energy Department facility that conducted the study.

The report reinforces concerns that intelligence officials have raised in recent years about growing surveillance of the electric grid by Chinese and Russian cyber-spies, which The Wall Street Journal reported last year. One worry is that a foreign country could shut down power in parts of the U.S.

Click here to view the full article: Grid is Vulnerable to Cyber-Attacks

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Increased use of electricity to beat heat eventually could mean higher bills 
posted 7/27/2010

from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Consumers striving to keep cool are helping to raise the price of coal...

PJM, which measures electricity used by the hour, said last summer's peak usage was 126,805 megawatts in an hour. This summer's hourly peak already has reached 136,684 megawatts.

In July 2009, the highest demand for electricity on a day was 116,599 megawatts. So far this July, that mark has been topped on 16 different days -- including every day last week.

That higher demand, in turn, means higher prices for coal, the fuel that is burned to provide about half of the nation's electricity. 

Click here to view the full article: Increased use of electricity 

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Two-state assault on power plant 
posted 7/21/2010

posted from Times Union.com

The current and former owners of a massive Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant are facing a lawsuit from New York and Pennsylvania regulators over inadequate pollution controls, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday.

The intent to sue, filed by Cuomo and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, targets a two-gigawatt, three-stack power plant in Homer City, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh that opened in 1969.

The two states claim plant owners disregarded provisions of the federal Clean Air Act, adopted in 1970, that required state-of-the-art pollution controls be installed at the plant when it underwent several major modifications in the 1980s and 1990s. The action increased pollution emissions, the claim said. 

Click here to read the full article:  Two-state assault on power plant

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Can wind power be too much of good thing?
posted 7/20/2010

From The News Tribune:

During the last three years, the building boom spawned by green energy mandates in Oregon, Washington and California doubled the generation capacity of wind farms in the region. By 2013, it’s expected to double again.

That seems like great news. Plenty of carbon-free energy with no fuel costs. Jobs. Property taxes.

In the real world, however, the pace and geographic concentration of wind development, coupled with wild swings in its output, are overwhelming the region’s electrical grid and outstripping its ability to use the power or send it elsewhere.

Click here to read the full article: Can wind power be too much of good thing?

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Senate Democrats to Pursue a Smaller Energy Bill
posted 7/15/2010

From The New York Times:

President Obama and Senate Democrats have decided to press ahead in the next two weeks with a scaled-back energy bill that limits carbon pollution by power plants but not by other industries in an effort to salvage the legislation before midterm elections...

While the House last year passed a measure capping the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change across the economy, the White House and its Senate allies will push only to limit those from electric utilities, which are responsible for about a third of the emissions produced by the United States.

Click here to read the full article: Senate Democrats Opt for Scaled-Back Energy Bill

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U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies 
posted 7/8/2010

From The Wall Street Journal:

The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants...

The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government's chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack, though it wouldn't persistently monitor the whole system...

U.S. intelligence officials have grown increasingly alarmed about what they believe to be Chinese and Russian surveillance of computer systems that control the electric grid and other U.S. infrastructure. Officials are unable to describe the full scope of the problem, however, because they have had limited ability to pull together all the private data...

The U.S. government has for more than a decade claimed a national-security interest in privately owned critical infrastructure that, if attacked, could cause significant damage to the government or the economy. Initially, it established relationships with utility companies so it could, for instance, request that a power company seal a manhole that provides access to a key power line for a government agency.  

Click here to read the full article: U.S. Plans Cyber Shield

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EPA aims to cut power plants' emissions
posted 7/8/2010

from The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Obama administration is proposing a new rule to tighten restrictions on pollution from coal-burning power plants in the eastern half of the country, a key step to cut emissions that cause smog....

The rule, to be made final next year, aims to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 71 percent from 2005 levels by 2014 and nitrogen oxide emissions by 52 percent in the same period.

Known as the Clean Air Interstate Rule, the measure requires 31 states from Massachusetts to Texas to reduce smog and soot-producing emissions that can travel long distances in the wind. The agency said the rule would prevent 14,000 to 36,000 premature deaths a year...

The rule would cost nearly $3 billion a year, and those costs would likely be passed to consumers.

Click here to read the full article:  EPA aims to cut power plants' emissions

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Frontier and Verizon Complete Transaction
posted July 6, 2010

From SmartBrief:

Frontier Communications Corporation announced that it has completed its acquisition of Verizon Communications’ local wireline operations in 14 states. The combined operations will provide voice, High-Speed Internet, wireless Internet data access, satellite video, FiOS and other services to more than 4.0 million residential and business customers in 27 states using the Frontier Communications brand. This transaction positions Frontier as the largest pure rural telecommunications carrier in the United States.

 Click here to read the full article: Frontier Communications

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NRC Panel: Nuclear Waste Dump Process Continues
posted June 30, 2010

From the The Kansas City Star:

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission legal panel put a proposal for a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada back on track, at least until the full commission decides whether the Department of Energy can withdraw its plan.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu doesn't have the authority to pull the plug on a process that Congress started when it passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982, the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board said in a 47-page order issued in Rockville, Md.

Click here to read the full article: NRC panel: Nuclear waste dump process continues

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Pennsylvania American Water Begins $101M Upgrade
posted June 29, 2010

From the Pittsburgh Business Times:

This week, Pennsylvania American Water broke ground on three drinking water construction projects totaling about $101 million in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region.

The Hershey-based water company initiated the effort to replace aging infrastructure and to comply with stricter federal water quality standards that go into effect in 2012.

Click here to read the full article: Pennsylvania American Water Begins $101M Upgrade
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Study Predicts Natural Gas Use Will Double 
posted June 29, 2010

From The New York Times:

Natural gas will provide an increasing share of America’s energy needs over the next several decades, doubling its share of the energy market to 40 percent, from 20 percent, according to a report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The increase, the report concluded, will come largely at the expense of coal and will be driven both by abundant supplies of natural gas — made more available by shale drilling — and by measures to restrict the carbon dioxide emissions that are linked to climate change.

Click here to read the full article: Study Predicts Natural Gas Use Will Double

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East Has Power to Meet Soaring Heat Wave Demand 
posted June 24, 2010
 
From the Post-Chronicle:

Grid operators across the eastern half of the United States expect to have more than enough electricity to meet soaring power demand this week as consumers crank up their air conditioners to escape the summer's first heat wave.

To help ensure continued reliability, PJM however did ask its members to avoid conducting unnecessary maintenance on their generation and transmission facilities during the hot weather but did not take any steps that customers would notice.

Click here to read the full article: East Has Power To Meet Soaring Heat Wave Demand

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Businesses Go Shopping for Electricity 
posted June 17, 2010

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Nearly two dozen energy companies are scrambling to sign up Peco Energy Co.'s biggest, most lucrative customers - the commercial and industrial users - in preparation for electric deregulation at the end of this year.

About 110 customers of the Philadelphia utility attended a seminar Tuesday at the Union League to learn more about the implications of electric choice. The bottom line: Large customers should shop around for power, because their competitors are, too.

Click here to read the full article: Businesses go shopping for electricity
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New Jersey Environmental Group Sues to Halt Construction of PPL Power Line
posted June 14, 2010

From the Scranton Times Tribune:

A coalition of environmental groups has appealed a New Jersey utility commission ruling in an effort to halt construction of a controversial, high-power electrical line that would run through this region.

The suit, filed in New Jersey Superior Court, alleges the state's Board of Public Utilities erred in April by approving Public Service Electric & Gas' application to construct its part of the $1.2 billion Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line.

PPL plans to use the line to deliver power from its nuclear plant near Berwick to other markets in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Click here to read the full article: New Jersey environmental group sues to halt construction of PPL power line

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Telecom Act Under Review
posted May 26, 2010

From The New York Times:

Two top Democratic legislators said Monday that they would begin a process to modernize telecommunications laws that were last overhauled in 1996 but barely mention the Internet.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in a joint statement that they would hold meetings in June to examine how the Communications Act meets the current needs of consumers, the telecommunications industry and the Federal Communications Commission.

Click here to read the full article: Communications Law to be Reviewed

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