ANNAPOLIS, MD - Late Friday night, GenOn Holdings, Inc. announced the retirement of the company’s Morgantown coal-fired power plant located in Charles County, MD on the Potomac River. The company will deactivate the coal plant in 2027. Prior to Friday’s announcement, the 50-year old Morgantown plant was the largest coal-fired power plant in Maryland without plans to cease operating.
At Thursday night’s meeting of the Muscatine Power & Water (MPW) board, Sierra Club presented a new analysis finding that investing in a clean energy portfolio would be cheaper than building a new gas plant, which MPW is considering. MPW made public over the summer its initial plans to phase out coal power, replacing part of the 270 MW plant with 30 MW of solar. MPW is currently weighing whether to replace the remaining coal generation with a new combined heat and power gas plant, based on a power supply study that has not been available to the public.
JACKSON -- Today the Mississippi PSC held a special meeting and unanimously approved a new order in Docket No. 2018-AD-145, governing Mississippi Power Company’s Reserve Margin Plan. Recognizing that Mississippi Power is generating far more power than is needed by consumers -- and that rate-payers are paying for the extra costs -- the Commission ordered Mississippi Power to present a plan for reducing its electricity-generating capacity by 950 MW by 2027.
Today, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) voted to reverse its decision to accelerate the retirements of three Colorado coal units by 2028. On November 20, the AQCC made a preliminary final decision in Phase 1 of Colorado’s Regional Haze Plan, requiring utilities to retire several coal and gas plants no later than December 31, 2028. Today’s vote also reverses the AQCC’s November request to the Air Pollution Control Division to shutter Hayden coal units 1 & 2 by 2028.
Charleston, WV -- Today, the West Virginia Public Service Commission approved a settlement involving the West Virginia Energy Users Group, West Virginia Citizens Action Group, Solar United Neighbors, and the Sierra Club with Monongahela Power Company (MonPower) that will compel the utility to provide transparent accounting of their uneconomic coal plants and justification for continuing plant operations.
Today, the Sierra Club announced its support for the Tennessee Valley Authority announcement that it will be taking steps to promote the widespread adoption of electric vehicles throughout its seven-state service region.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Earlier this week, the DC Public Service Commission put District gas customers on the hook for another $150 million investment in Washington Gas’s outdated pipeline spending proposal. The full, 30-year spending proposal will cost ratepayers up to $4.5 billion on the gas utility’s fossil fuel distribution system, which itself is only valued at $525 million. Washington Gas’s plan is incompatible with DC’s climate commitment to phase out fossil use by 2050 and flies in the face of the real actions needed and outlined in the Clean Energy DC plan.
South Carolina Public Service Commissioners have unanimously rejected Dominion Energy’s proposed plan for how it would provide electricity to customers over the next several years, and have ordered the utility to file a modified plan within 60 days.
Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes released the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change Report that included 55 policy recommendations to address climate change in Wisconsin. This report comes after a year of input from the Task Force, five public hearings and thousands of comments.
Former coal lobbyist, and soon to be former EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler finalized new requirements today which change how EPA calculates the costs and benefits for its clean air protections.
Former coal lobbyist turned EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler ignored the recommendations of EPA scientists and public health experts today by finalizing his proposal to not correct the legal limit for dangerous particulate matter pollution, also known as soot.
Charleston, WV -- Today, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), Appalachian Voices, and the Sierra Club filed a settlement with Bluestone Coal Company that will hold the company responsible for releasing illegal levels of toxic selenium pollution into the Tug River from its Red Fox coal mine located in McDowell County, West Virginia. The settlement compels Bluestone to take actions to come into compliance with selenium limits in its Clean Water Act permit and pay $270,000 to the West Virginia Land Trust.