On Monday, District Judge Rodney Sippel ordered sweeping injunctive relief against Ameren Missouri, intended to remedy violations of PSD requirements he had previously identified resulting from upgrades to the Ameren Missouri...more
10/2/2019
/ Air Pollution ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Environmental Violations ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Permits ,
Power Plants ,
PSD ,
Regulatory Authority
Here’s my take on the Affordable Clean Energy Plan.
Who cares?
On the merits, it does almost nothing. It requires only that states impose heat rate improvement requirements on coal-fired power plants. It’s not going to...more
6/21/2019
/ Air Pollution ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Coal Industry ,
Coal-Fired Plants ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
New Rules ,
Power Plants
After receiving an analysis showing that shutting the Jim Bridger and Naughton coal-fired electric generating plants in Wyoming would save ratepayers money, PacificCorp, the owner of the plants, announced that it would shut...more
On Monday, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality issued determinations with respect to six Duke Energy coal plants, requiring that Duke close coal combustion residual surface impoundments at the plants by...more
4/3/2019
/ Clean-Up Costs ,
Coal Industry ,
Coal-Fired Plants ,
Department of Environmental Quality ,
Duke Energy ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
Excavation ,
Landfills ,
Power Plants ,
Waste Disposal ,
Waste Management
On Friday, Connecticut announced that it had reached agreement with Dominion, Eversource, and United Illuminating to keep the Millstone nuclear plant operating for 10 more years. Not coincidentally, on the same day, the six...more
Last week, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that AEP, which entered into a consent decree requiring it to install certain pollution controls at its Rockport 1 and 2 power plants, could not force the owner of those...more
The conservative cases in support of Chevron deference keep arriving. This week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed EPA’s federal implementation plan for compliance with its regional haze regulations by the Navajo...more
Although citizen groups have suffered some defeats in Clean Air Act cases in the NSR/PSD context recently, a decision last week in a different kind of CAA case is a reminder of just how powerful a weapon citizen suits can be,...more
On Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges by several states and the NRDC to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement analyzing the impacts of continued on-site storage...more
6/6/2016
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Article III ,
Energy Storage ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Judicial Review ,
NEPA ,
NRDC ,
Nuclear Power ,
Nuclear Regulatory Commission ,
Power Plants ,
Site Remediation ,
Standing
Given EPA’s recent run of defeats in its NSR enforcement initiative, it’s probably breathing a sigh of relief over last week’s decision in United States v. Ameren Missouri, regarding Ameren’s Rush Island coal-fired power...more
On September 30, EPA released its long-awaited (long-feared?) final rule governing wastewater discharges from steam electric generating facilities. The trade press is presenting the rule as a victory for environmentalists...more
Easy way to tell when you’ve lost your appeal? When a pithy judge starts making fun of you in the first sentence of the opinion. In a case that was only ever going to have one outcome, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals...more
Although there is no news on DOE’s web site as of today, apparently FutureGen 2.0 is dead. DOE stopped federal funding. The FutureGen Alliance has already asked DOE to reconsider, but that seems unlikely at this point....more
Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision that arguably explains everything from why the Tea Party exists to why otherwise calm and sane executives suddenly lose all their hair. Perhaps most astounding,...more
In two related decisions last week, the Supreme Judicial Court issued three important rulings, and handed the Brockton Power Company one major problem in its long-running effort to build a combined-cycle gas plant in...more
The Supreme Court affirmed EPA’s authority to subject 83% of greenhouse gas emissions to its PSD and Title V Operating Permit programs. However, EPA’s rationale for the rule did not fare so well, and EPA does not have...more
6/25/2014
/ BACT ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Permits ,
Power Plants ,
SCOTUS ,
Title V ,
Utilities Sector ,
Utility Air Regulatory Group v EPA
Last week, in posting about EPA’s Clean Power Plan, I noted that some potential plaintiffs might face standing obstacles in seeking to challenge the rule, assuming it is promulgated as proposed. Today, I take a (very)...more
As some folks may have heard, EPA proposed emission guidelines for GHG emissions from existing generating units on Monday. Obviously, the rule is a little too complicated to summarize in one blog post, though I’ll try to post...more
Last week was hazardous air pollutant regulation week at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. First, as we reported, the Court affirmed EPA’s mercury air toxics rule, determining that EPA need not take cost into account in...more
As those following EPA’s efforts to promulgate NSPS for greenhouse gas emissions from new fossil fuel-fired electric generating plants know, EPA has come under fire for basing its proposal on demonstrations of feasibility at...more
The Sierra Club released a poll yesterday showing substantial support for EPA’s efforts to regulate carbon emissions from power plants. The poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, whose representative,...more
Last Friday, EPA reissued its draft NSPS addressing carbon emissions from new power plants. It’s not actually that different from the prior proposal, which would have required all new fossil-fuel plants to meet a 1,000 lbs...more
President Obama yesterday released his Climate Action Plan, together with a Memorandum concerning EPA’s issuance of rules governing carbon emissions from new and existing power plants under the Clean Air Act. At a certain...more