Archive for October, 2007
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 30 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: General, Electric, Energy
Times Leader:
With the lifting of the caps on the cost of power generation approaching, PPL Electric Utilities proposed a voluntary plan for customers to pay more in advance rather than bear the full cost of the imminent rate hikes.
The plan to be submitted to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission next month would allow customers to step up their payments over a five-year period to ease the impact of the estimated 35-percent increase in 2010.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 30 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Nuclear
Washington Post:
The Tennessee Valley Authority is expected to file an application, perhaps as early as Tuesday, with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two new nuclear power reactors at a site in Alabama.
The TVA, the nation’s largest public power provider, plans to build the reactors at the site of the partially completed and then mothballed Bellefonte nuclear power station near Scottsboro, Ala. The TVA, in conjunction with an industry consortium called NuStart, has been working on the proposal for two years.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 29 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: General, Natural Gas, Electric, Energy, Nuclear, Environment
FPL President Armando Olivera in the Miami Herald:
Aside from the urgent need to begin planning today for the future, FPL chose nuclear power for some other important reasons.
As a clean-energy company, we’re concerned about greenhouse gas emissions and nuclear energy represents a clean alternative. A nuclear facility produces zero carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global climate change, and gives off no other greenhouse gases…
Diversifying our fuel mix with more nuclear power offers other clear advantages. Despite a significant initial capital investment in this power source, nuclear fuel is inexpensive in relation to fossil fuels, so a nuclear plant should provide affordable and reliable energy to our customers for decades.
Prices for natural gas and oil are subject to sharp fluctuations, which have driven increased fuel surcharges on our customers’ bills in recent years. The cost of nuclear fuel is more stable, so additional nuclear power generation should provide customers with more stable prices in the future.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 29 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: General, Electric, Energy
Asbury Park Press:
Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., owner of Public Service Electric and Gas Co., is planning to spend as much as $350 million for new natural gas-fueled power plants to profit from rising electricity demand.
Revenue from the new plants, designed to run during hours when power demand is highest, would come from sales on the market for future electricity capacity created this year by PJM Interconnection LLC, the regional power-grid operator, the Newark-based company said Wednesday in a statement.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 26 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: General, Energy, Opinion, Environment
Christian Science Monitor:
Economists agree that the real cost of burning fossil fuels – damage to the environment and health, not to mention the cost of replacing them as they run out – isn’t reflected in today’s prices. A carbon tax would directly send a market signal to reduce carbon use. And it would provide an incentive for investment in renewable sources, especially if the tax is set at the source: for natural gas, at the wellhead; for coal, at the mine entrance. Oil would be charged at the refinery because petroleum products create different levels of emissions when burned.
The World Resources Institute calculates that a tax of $15 per ton of carbon-dioxide emissions would double the costs for coal use and raise gasoline prices about 13 cents a gallon (or about 5 percent, at today’s prices). Natural-gas prices would rise less than 7 percent. That would result in a 12 percent reduction in CO2 emissions.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 26 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Energy, Nuclear
DDI News:
Nuclear power will remain a major source of energy around the world in the coming decades, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over two dozen new reactors are now under construction globally.
In a new report, the IAEA projects an average growth rate of up to 2.5 per cent by 2030.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 26 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: General, Electric, Energy
T&D World:
The PJM Interconnection Board approved $2.1 billion in electric transmission system additions and upgrades to maintain the reliability of the power supply system serving 51 million people in 13 states and the District of Columbia. The additions include a new 500-kV transmission line through the Delmarva Peninsula.
The PJM Board has authorized a cumulative $9.3 billion in transmission improvements since 2000 when the first Regional Transmission Expansion Plan was approved.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 24 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Energy, Opinion, Environment
Christian Science Monitor:
Congress may move soon to tackle global warming. The boldest action in play would set limits on carbon emissions while allowing cleaner companies to sell “permits” to the worse polluters. But lawmakers should be wary: Europe’s record with “cap and trade” is wobbly, at best…
Industry lobbyists were able to punch loopholes in the EU’s complex system. The EU ended up handing out far too many free permits: Their value plummeted from more than $30 a ton to about $1 last year, hurting the incentive. In industries that were hit by caps, many moved production outside the EU, taking their polluting ways with them.
Even proponents of the other major international cap-and-trade experiment, the Kyoto Protocol, a worldwide carbon-trading system among 160 countries set up in 1997, agree its carbon-cutting results have been modest at best. And reports of fraud and other problems with trading permits have cast doubt on its effectiveness.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 22 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Telecommunications
Law.com:
In a victory for big telephone companies, a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that effectively deregulated high-speed Internet access service provided over traditional telephone lines.
In its September 2005 ruling, the FCC relieved telephone companies of decades-old regulations that required them to grant competing Internet service providers “nondiscriminatory” access to their wirelines in order to reach consumers.
Challenging the ruling in the three consolidated appeals, captioned Time Warner Telecom Inc. v. FCC, were independent Internet service providers, competing telecommunications service providers, cable modem providers and several public interest organizations.
The FCC’s order now allows telephone companies to enter into individually negotiated arrangements with companies that seek access to their broadband wireline facilities.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 19 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Water
Business Week:
The Southeast is thirsty. Because of a record drought, Atlanta now has 87 days of drinking water left if rain doesn’t fall soon. Raleigh, N.C., has 97 days. Some restaurants in Atlanta aren’t offering drinking water unless asked. Farmers in North Carolina are so low on hay that they’ve begun selling cattle. And dams along the Savannah River have gotten to such low levels this summer they’ve fallen short of generating the hydropower promised to help keep the region’s air conditioners blasting.
Most of the blame at the moment is falling squarely on historically low rainfall. But an equally important culprit has been the unbridled growth of the Southeast in the past 50 years. The region’s abundance of cheap water has long fueled development.
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