Philadelphia, P.A. — PJM Interconnection, the regional electric grid operator for 13 states including Pennsylvania, announced the results of its capacity auction yesterday. The auction ensures that the region has enough electric generating capacity to keep the lights on in 2021. These results confirm that PJM is continuing a trend of procuring much more generating capacity than is needed for the region. As of now, it exceeds the amount necessary by almost 6 percent, which equates to over 9,300 extra megawatts of excess power, or about 10 large power plants that are unnecessary. This extra capacity artificially adds about $530 million in costs for consumers with little reliability benefit.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Andrew Oldham’s nomination to the judiciary for the Fifth Circuit Court along party lines. Oldham is one of the youngest of Trump’s nominees for a seat on the circuit court of appeals, and if approved by the full Senate, will hold a lifetime appointment to the judiciary.
Great Falls, Mont. – Environmental and landowner groups today argued in federal court that the Trump administration’s rubber-stamp approval of a cross-border permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline violated environmental laws and should be vacated.
The Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) has indefinitely suspended portions of a permit required for construction of the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)
BOSTON, MA -- The Baker Administration announced today that Vineyard Wind has been selected to construct an 800 megawatt (MW) offshore wind project in federal waters off the coast of Massachusetts. Simultaneously the State of Rhode Island announced it will enter into negotiations with Deepwater Wind to procure 400 MW of offshore wind energy.
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, Amigos Bravos, San Juan Citizens Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit today for an order requiring the EPA to finalize the Four Corners Generating Station’s water pollution permit. The EPA has missed two permitting cycles to update the coal plant’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) water pollution permit that was last issued in 2001.
On Tuesday, May 22, 2018, the City of Norman, Oklahoma committed to transition to 100 percent clean and renewable energy. The Norman City Council unanimously adopted the resolution, which states that Norman will transition to use 100 percent clean energy like wind and solar for electricity by 2035 and across all sectors including heat and transportation by 2050.
Las Vegas, NV-- Southern Nevadans will call on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to proceed in public process and begin consulting with locals in the establishing of a management plan for Gold Butte National Monument. The process was essentially cancelled when Zinke carried out a review of 27 national monuments-- leaving Gold Butte’s boundaries and future uncertain while preventing local BLM officials from working on a plan with the public.
A coalition of environmental advocates filed a motion for stay, asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to put an immediate stop to the construction across waterways of the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline