North Dakota Officials at Loggerheads with EPA over Air Pollution Rules
Posted on Sep 7, 2011 in Environmental, Legislative & Politics | Comments Off on North Dakota Officials at Loggerheads with EPA over Air Pollution Rules
North Dakota health officials are at an impasse with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the best technology to reduce the air pollution of two coal-burning power plants in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, one of which is operated by Minnkota Power Cooperative Inc. State regulators contend that the EPA’s preferred technology may not be effective and will be much costlier...
Nevada Coop May Join California Power Grid
Posted on Aug 29, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Nevada Coop May Join California Power Grid
Nevada-based Valley Electric Association has received approval to join the California Independent System Operator Corporation, a nonprofit power-management corporation. Valley Electric has 23,000 members along the Nevada-California state line, and coop officials say linking Valley Electric’s 360 miles of existing transmission lines to California’s grid would let it ship renewable...
Coops Battle the Effect of Hurricane Irene
Posted on Aug 29, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure | Comments Off on Coops Battle the Effect of Hurricane Irene
Electric cooperatives across the Northeast are dealing with the power disruptions caused by Hurricane Irene’s destruction. According to Touchstone Energy Group, North Carolina-based coops have restored power to nearly 90,000 households, reducing the 152,000 outages reported on Saturday. In Vermont, utility workers continued working Monday morning to restore electricity to the 4,400...
Ravalli Electric Coop Opts for Fuses to Lower Fire Risk
Posted on Aug 22, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure | Comments Off on Ravalli Electric Coop Opts for Fuses to Lower Fire Risk
Montana-based Ravalli Electric Cooperative has announced that it will temporarily switch from breakers to fuses on its electrical system in fire-prone areas until later this fall when the high-risk part of the fire season has passed. The fuses eliminate the operation of re-energizing power lines, which can send a new surge of power through power lines near dry tree limbs and other...
Report Finds More Planning Needed to Deal with Weather-Related Outages
Posted on Aug 22, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure | Comments Off on Report Finds More Planning Needed to Deal with Weather-Related Outages
In a report released on August 16, 2011, staff members from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corporation concluded that last February’s power outages in the Southwest may be related to a lack of preparation for bad weather. The power disruptions that occurred last February affected 4.4 million electricity consumers and 50,000 natural gas...
Vermont Electric Coop Wins POWER Magazine Smart Grid Award
Posted on Aug 2, 2011 in Environmental, Grid & Infrastructure | Comments Off on Vermont Electric Coop Wins POWER Magazine Smart Grid Award
Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) was recognized as the winner of the inaugural POWER Smart Grid Award. Among other smart grid technologies, VEC has implemented bidirectional meters, a new GPS-enabled outage management system, substation upgrades, and online access to electricity usage information. These efforts have cut outages in the VEC territory in half. They have also reduced...
North Dakota May See Federal Takeover of Regional Haze Rules
Posted on Jul 25, 2011 in Environmental, Regulation & Policy, Technology | Comments Off on North Dakota May See Federal Takeover of Regional Haze Rules
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to file a notice on August 18 to take over the state’s authority to manage federal regional haze rules. Federal and state regulators disagree on which technology Minnkota Power Cooperative and Basin Electric Power Cooperative must install to reduce certain power plant emissions. The Bismarck Tribune has the full story.
Coop Offers Early Retirement Packages to Cut Costs
Posted on Jul 19, 2011 in Economic Downturn, Environmental | Comments Off on Coop Offers Early Retirement Packages to Cut Costs
The Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative has offered early retirement to more than one-third of its employees as a cost cutting measure intended to keep rates lower. Full-time employees 54 or older were offered “voluntary special early retirement,” which includes insurance coverage through April 30, 2012, and a retraining program for anyone who wants to re-enter the workforce. The...
Arizona Corporate Commission Approves New Waste-to-Energy Plant
Posted on Jul 18, 2011 in Environmental, Innovation/Efficiency, Project Development, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Arizona Corporate Commission Approves New Waste-to-Energy Plant
Last week, the Arizona Corporate Commission approved an application filed in November 2010 by Mohave Electric Cooperative for a waste-to-energy plant as a pilot program. MEC, which distributes electricity to nearly 40,000 customers, plans to build the plant in the Phoenix area. The plant could generate about 11 megawatts of electricity, supplying roughly 2,700 homes with electricity....
House Committee Blocks EPA Regulations
Posted on Jul 18, 2011 in Environmental, Legislative & Politics | Comments Off on House Committee Blocks EPA Regulations
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted on July 13 to advance legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste. The same committee voted just days earlier to delay implementation of two major EPA rules. The first rule would require utilities to use maximum achievable control technology on their units to reduce emissions of...
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