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Minnesota utilities target small transmission upgrades with big grid impacts
A group of utilities that once went big on building transmission is now going small to open bottlenecks and move more wind power from western Minnesota and the Dakotas. Grid North Partners, which includes 10 investor- and consumer-owned utilities, will spend roughly $130 million for 19 transmission upgrades to improve access to wind energy and reduce grid congestion.
Wisconsin coal plants are closing, but ratepayers are still on the hook
Wisconsin utility WEC Group announced to shareholders last month that its subsidiaries would phase out coal by 2032, three years earlier than previously planned. We Energies’ Oak Creek plants will close in 2024 and 2025. Columbia Energy Center — the state’s largest coal plant, co-owned by WEC and Alliant — will close by 2026. Weston Unit 3 — co-owned with Dairyland Power Cooperative — will close by 2031.
Advocates press Wisconsin regulators to reconsider natural gas plant need
When Jenny Van Sickle was elected to the Superior, Wisconsin, City Council in 2017, she joked that the first two calls she got were from her mother and representatives of the Nemadji Trail Energy Center, a proposed 625-megawatt combined-cycle gas-fired power plant planned for a site on the Nemadji River adjacent to her neighborhood, East End.
How an Ohio-based steel company cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly a third
Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs’ success in beating its goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its U.S. iron and steel operations won recognition from the Department of Energy last month. The progress is part of a broader industry trend to cut pollution that drives human-caused climate change. Yet advocates say there’s...
N.C. industrial group will drop challenge to Duke Energy low-income assistance program
A powerful consortium of pulp and paper mills and large manufacturers said Thursday it would drop its challenge to a Duke Energy aid program — ensuring tens of thousands of poor households in Asheville and eastern North Carolina will receive bill assistance next year after all. Set to begin...
Maine eyes time-of-use rates to encourage cheaper home electrification
Maine is considering new kinds of electric rates to encourage more widespread home adoption of electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps while easing the strain these technologies add to the power grid. Central Maine Power, the larger of the state’s two investor-owned utilities, is working with regulators and advocacy groups...
How an Asheville nonprofit is working to reduce energy burdens in Buncombe County, N.C.
As the first frost visits the mountains of western North Carolina, thousands of households are bracing themselves. Thinly insulated manufactured homes will provide little barrier to the cold. Gaps around doorways will invite it in. Old furnaces, if they work at all, will consume already strained monthly budgets. A lucky...
Minnesota adjusts solar incentives to prioritize low-income households
Xcel Energy is dedicating a bigger share of its Minnesota solar incentives to lower-income customers in response to a new state law. Since launching in 2014, Solar Rewards has provided financial incentives to help thousands of Minnesota homeowners pay for small solar installations. Over the past five years, state lawmakers, regulators, and the utility have gradually directed a larger share of Solar Rewards to income-qualified customers.
Advocates fear N.H. clean energy proposal would pit nuclear against solar, wind
Climate and clean energy advocates in New Hampshire say a pending proposal to define nuclear power as clean energy could undercut solar and wind power in the state. Though the details are still in the works, state Rep. Michael Vose, chair of the legislature’s science, technology, and energy committee, is drafting a bill that would allow nuclear power generators, such as New Hampshire’s Seabrook Station, to receive payments for contributing clean energy to the grid.
Electric vehicle charging legislation is urgent in Wisconsin, with federal funds at stake
Wisconsin will lose out on millions of federal dollars for electric vehicle charging infrastructure if the state does not pass legislation to allow stores or other owners of EV chargers to bill drivers for the amount of electricity they get when they plug in. Billing by the kilowatt-hour is a...
New community center provides Detroit neighborhood with a climate refuge
This article was produced in partnership with Planet Detroit. A new community center in Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood is also a key part of the city’s climate strategy. The Community Center at A. B. Ford Park is part of the first three networks of resiliency hubs on the...
N.C. manufacturers move to abolish Duke Energy customer assistance program, dismaying advocates
A powerful consortium of pulp mills, pipe foundries and other manufacturers has moved to block an aid program for Duke Energy’s poorest residential customers — provoking dismay among the clean energy advocates who had championed it. Set to begin early next year, the Customer Assistance Program would give...
Xcel Energy revives Minneapolis resiliency project with help of federal grant
A major federal grant will help Xcel Energy restart a Minneapolis microgrid project delayed earlier this year over cost concerns. Xcel Energy received a $100 million grant last week from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program for resiliency and wildfire mitigation initiatives, including the Resilient Minneapolis Project. The utility also agreed to invest $140 million in the partnership grant.
GOP-backed community solar bill in Wisconsin stymied by utility and labor opposition
A Wisconsin bill that would enable third-party-owned community solar has failed to progress this fall as backers had hoped, and time is running out for a hearing to be held before a key legislative deadline on Nov. 16. In a twist on the typical politics of renewable energy, the bill...
As nuclear fuel plant opens in Ohio, can small reactors compete?
As an Ohio uranium enrichment plant opened this month, yet another study questioned whether nuclear power from small modular reactors can compete with other types of electricity generation. Centrus Energy’s new plant in Piketon produces high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. The fuel will contain between 5% and 20% fissile uranium,...
Navigator CO2 pipeline is canceled, but Illinois opponents say the fight isn’t over
The company Navigator CO2 announced on October 20 it is nixing plans for a 1,300-mile pipeline to take carbon dioxide from ethanol plants across five states to be sequestered in Illinois. While Illinois residents who have stridently opposed the pipeline celebrate, local leader Pam Richart said, they are wary another...
Ohio oil and gas industry accident data boost worries about drilling under state parks
Public records show Ohio regulators log hundreds of incidents each year dealing with chemical releases related to the oil and gas industry. Such events raise critics’ concerns about plans to drill for oil and gas under state-owned parks and wildlife areas. While most problems happen at rigs and wellheads, which will be outside the parks, critics say airborne releases of methane or other chemicals would not be limited to property boundaries. And they fear that runoff could reach groundwater or surface water sources for state parks and nearby areas.
Utility refunds top priorities list for new Ohio consumers’ counsel
Refunds for unlawful utility charges are a top priority for Maureen Willis, the veteran litigator who became Ohio’s new consumers’ counsel this month. The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel is a state-funded agency that represents ratepayer interests in gas and electric utility cases, including matters relating to House Bill 6, the 2019 law at the heart of Ohio’s nuclear and coal bailout scandal. The office also works for legislative reform to promote competition, eliminate subsidies and protect energy affordability for vulnerable groups.
With N.C. home efficiency codes frozen, advocates eye other opportunities
Reality is setting in for clean energy advocates and building professionals who’d long sought to bring North Carolina’s outdated home energy code up to modern standards: the revamp isn’t happening. Under a law passed earlier this year by the Republican-led legislature, requirements for windows, insulation thickness, and...
Chicago-area startup banks on ethanol-fueled trucking as alternative to battery electric
BJ Johnson and Julie Blumreiter have nothing against electric trucks. But the duo think the rush to electrify heavy-duty transportation misses an important reality and leaves a yawning gap, which they hope to fill with the engine technology they developed as doctoral students at Stanford University. Blumreiter and Johnson co-founded...
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