Archive for July, 2007
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 24 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Energy, Nuclear, Environment
LiveScience.com:
Nuclear power is becoming a more attractive alternative energy source to Americans, according to a new survey…
The percentage of people who supported an increase in nuclear power grew from 28 percent in a survey conducted by MIT five years ago to 35 percent in the current survey. Ansolabehere said the increase was likely due to increased concern over carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels that is causing the current global warming.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 24 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Nuclear, Environment
Earthtimes.org:
The U.S. Department of Energy is looking for industry teams to help conceptually design the department’s “Next Generation Nuclear Plant.”
The Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory is conducting the program that seeks to use cutting-edge technology in building a high temperature reactor capable of producing hydrogen, electricity and/or process heat. Officials said such a nuclear power plant would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enabling nuclear energy to replace fossil fuels in the petrochemical and transportation industries.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 23 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Telecommunications
AP via Forbes:
A decade-old telephone tax intended to help bring affordable service to rural areas has instead turned into something quite different: a bottomless and politically protected well of cash for cell phone companies that do big business in rural America.
Over the past four years, there has been nearly a tenfold increase in government-ordered subsidies paid to a few “competitive” providers - cellular phone companies paid by the fund to offer service in rural areas where an existing carrier already receives a subsidy.
The Universal Service Fund has collected $44 billion over its 10-year lifetime from a surcharge on the phone bills of nearly every American.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 23 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Water
WaterTech Online:
Companies focused on water are outperforming the general economy and will continue to do so, an analyst of publicly traded “water sector” stocks says in a July 23 report to investors.
In the same report, however, Francesca McCann of Washington-based Stanford Group Co. says picking individual water-sector stocks as “compelling buying opportunities” at this time is difficult despite the sector’s overall long-term strength.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 23 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: General, Electric, Energy
AP via Topix:
An underground steam pipe explosion that injured dozens of people and closed streets in the heart of midtown Manhattan proved that the local electric utility is unreliable and needs greater oversight, a lawmaker said Sunday.
Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, a Democrat whose district in the Astoria section of Queens was hit by an eight-day blackout last summer, said the utility, Consolidated Edison, should be forced to compete for the right to manage the city’s power infrastructure and should be subject to annual audits by the state Public Service Commission.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 23 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: General
Philadelphia Inquirer:
Should utility customers pay higher rates for gas, electricity or water if conservation cuts into utilities’ sales? How about if customers’ savings from conservation will far outstrip the higher costs?
Those questions lie at the core of a debate about utility financing and conservation stirred by concerns over global warming and energy prices…
The programs are based on an idea called “rate decoupling,” or the disconnecting of utilities’ sales from profits…
Decoupling, in essence, enables a utility to share in the benefits of conservation savings. For instance, South Jersey Gas estimated that if a household cut $160 from its annual bill, the customer would keep $144 of the savings and return $16, or 10 percent of the total, to the utility.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 20 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Nuclear, International
Servihoo.com:
French state-controlled energy giant EDF said Friday it had agreed to create a joint venture with US peer Constellation Energy to operate new nuclear power plants in the United States.
The companies are to form a jointly-owned nuclear holding company into which EDF will invest a maximum 625 million dollars (865 million euros), while Constellation will contribute assets from its UniStar Nuclear business.
Constellation has also agreed to upgrade four of its existing US nuclear power stations with next-generation European atomic energy technology.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 19 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy
Chicago Tribune:
Illinois is considering creating an agency to negotiate electric-power purchases on behalf of consumers, a move aimed at eliminating the current auction system that recently produced rate increases of as much as 25 percent for Commonwealth Edison customers and even higher increases for Ameren customers in central and southern Illinois.
“It is our understanding that responsibility for buying power for consumers will be taken over by a new state agency, the Illinois Power Agency, which will do everything it can to keep rates low,” David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, a watchdog group, said Wednesday.
The agency’s chief role would be to obtain electricity as cheaply as possible by negotiating purchases from electric generators and suppliers. It also would strive for longer-term contracts to stabilize year-to-year price jumps, as has happened as a result of the auction process.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 19 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Water
Washington Post:
Toxic chlorine pollutants were found at unsafe levels in 40 percent of D.C. tap water samples tested this spring during the water utility’s annual chlorine surge, according to a national environmental group’s report to be released today.
The nonprofit Environmental Working Group conducted tests at 18 sites — including private homes, an elementary school, the U.S. Capitol and the Environmental Protection Agency — to measure the levels of chlorine toxins that could cause cancer, reproductive problems and developmental delays in children. In 90 percent of the samples, the tests found another class of chlorine toxin at levels that some epidemiological studies have associated with low birth weight and serious birth defects.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 19 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Water, Energy
UPI via Political Gateway:
Two U.S. Department of Energy laboratories are joining forces in an effort to reduce electric producers’ demands for fresh water.
The National Energy Technology Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratory signed an agreement designed to advance the research, development, demonstration and commercial deployment of technologies that reduce fresh water demands related to fossil energy generation.
Energy Department officials said thermoelectric power plants using coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear sources require significant amounts of water for cooling and are a major competitor for water resources. A 2000 study found electric power plants were the second largest U.S. user of fresh water, withdrawing 136 billion gallons of fresh water daily. Only agriculture used more water.
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