The Quad Report

By Kennedy Maize The Trump-dominated U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this month has rolled back a series of long-standing regulations aimed at environmental, worker, and public health protections. In each case, the NRC moves reflect actions long on the nuclear power industry’s regulatory wish list, and many promoted in White House executive orders. In chronological order:  … More Trump’s NRC launches a sweeping suite of proposed regulatory rollbacks

By Kennedy Maize For decades, U.S. geothermal energy enthusiasts have been promising great advances from drill bit to megawatt. Many experts have predicted that geothermal could provide as much as 20% of U.S. electricity, with a renewable and non-polluting energy source. That’s greater than coal (17%) and nuclear (18%). Geothermal’s tale has mostly been one … More Is U.S. geothermal energy finally ready to deliver?

By Kennedy Maize When it comes to the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), “Unsubsidized renewable energy remains the most cost competitive form of new-build generation…. Wind, solar and storage are expected to continue to account for the majority of near-term U.S. capacity additions given their relatively short deployment timeline,” according to a new report from … More Lazard: renewables consistently lowest cost of new electric generation

By Kennedy Maize The federal government’s assault on the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act — pronounced in the Trump administration and abetted by the U.S. Supreme Court — continued yesterday (July 16) at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. A unanimous FERC at its July meeting approved two measures to fast-track agency review of the environmental … More FERC rolls back hydro power environmental analysis

By Kennedy Maize Fermi America’s 17-GW, $60 billion AI data center planned for 7,500 acres on the arid Texas panhandle, which would combine nuclear and fossil generation, has a serious nuclear weakness, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The troubled and conflict-ridden Texas-based firm Fermi Inc. (NASDAQ:FRMI), doing business as Fermi … More IEEFA: nuclear cooling clouds troubled Texas data center plan

By Henry Sokolski The world is entering a new era of nuclear proliferation. As alliance loyalties wane, hostile and friendly nuclear weapons proliferation is becoming more likely. As in the 1950s and 1960s, security analysts are increasingly worried about the prospect of nuclear use. To hedge against these concerns, Washington must bolster its overseas security … More Guest Commentary: Extended deterrence at a crossroads

By Kennedy Maize A multi-year battle at state and local levels over banning use of natural gas in individual stoves or for space and water heating in new buildings has flared up again in federal courts in California and New York. The cases have centered around parsing the terms of the federal 1975 Energy Conservation … More Electric v. gas legal warfare battles reignited

By Kennedy Maize In a massive, coordinated campaign, late last month (June 29) 196 local community groups and the attorneys general of eight states — Illinois, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont — filed objections to the Environmental Protection Agency’s April proposal to roll back regulations on coal ash disposal from the … More AGs and community groups trash EPA’s coal ash retreat

By Kennedy Maize The U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 redefined the fundamentals of how the federal government works going back some 144 years and the creation of the now-defunct Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated railroads. The court ruled 6-3 with the usual partisan divide that hitherto “independent” federal agencies are not independent. The president … More FERC, NRC and the slaughter of Humphrey’s Executor

By Kennedy Maize Fuel cells, a proven way to make electricity without combustion, fission, or gravity, are making serious inroads into the red-hot market for producing power for artificial intelligence data centers. Last Tuesday (June 30), fuel cell vendor Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) announced what they described as a “$25 billion” deal with Canadian financial holding … More Fuel cells advance in the AI electric generation market