After days of speculation surrounding the FBI search of Chairman Sam Randazzo's Columbus home, and an SEC filing from FirstEnergy identifying a questionable $4 million payment to an unidentified Ohio utility regulator, Chairman Randazzo has resigned from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
ANNAPOLIS, MD - The Sierra Club and Maryland League of Conservation Voters today applauded the Maryland Commission on Climate Change’s new 2020 Annual Report to the Maryland General Assembly and Governor Hogan.
ANNAPOLIS , MD - Today, Talen Energy announced that the company would stop burning coal at the Montour, Brandon Shores, and Wagner power plants by the end of 2025, pending approvals by relevant state agencies. In addition to moving off coal, Talen publicly committed to develop 1 GW of solar and electricity storage facilities, beginning with a 100MW solar development adjacent to the Montour site in Pennsylvania and storage at Wagner in Maryland.
This week, WEC Energy Group announced it plans to retire 1400 MW of coal by 2025, starting with the four remaining units (1192 MW) at the South Oak Creek coal plant in 2023 and 2024; with an additional 300MW to be retired by 2025. WEC is a co-owner of the Columbia coal plant, operated by Alliant Energy; and it co-owns and operates the Weston Power Plant and Elm Road Generating Station. WEC’s announcement included plans to invest in a significant clean energy portfolio that includes 800 MW of solar, 600 MW of battery storage, and 100 MW of wind. WEC’s announcements are part of a “roadmap” that lays out the company’s near-term plans to achieve 70% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
Austin, Texas -- American Electric Power, parent company of Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), announced a fleetwide compliance plan to address coal ash and toxic water pollution, which includes plans to end coal use at its Pirkey and Welsh coal plants in east Texas. In addition, AEP announced it will spend tens of millions of dollars to update ash disposal systems at plants in West Virginia and Arkansas and divest its interest in the Rockport coal plant in Indiana in 2022.
The Clean Power Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin hosted an online press conference Thursday morning on the ninth anniversary of the We Energies’ Oak Creek bluff collapse incident which occurred on Halloween of 2011. Speakers from the community and local public officials called on We Energies to stop their dirty tricks and finally end their haunting legacy in Southeast Wisconsin by retiring their polluting and devastation-prone coal plant. We Energies is faced with having to eliminate its more dangerous methods for handling coal ash by the end of next year, in accordance with its water permit. The company has yet to decide whether it will invest more money in the Oak Creek coal plant, or shut it down in order to comply. Speakers appealed to the company to make the only decision that will offer residents a guaranteed future free of impacts from that plant: a retirement and remediation timeline for the coal-fired Oak Creek Power Plant.
Today Puget Sound Energy (PSE) announced they will no longer pursue a plan to sell their stake in Colstrip Unit 4 and transmission capacity to Montana’s NorthWestern Energy and Talen Montana, following near-unanimous opposition to the deal. This decision leaves the future of the plant in doubt and speaks to the need for the plant’s owners to negotiate an orderly retirement and transition plan for workers and the local community.
Annapolis, MD - Today, the Governors of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina announced a new regional partnership that seeks to attract and promote massive clean offshore wind development and thousands of clean energy jobs and billions of dollars to the region.
RICHMOND, VA - Today, the Governors of Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina announced a new regional partnership that seeks to attract and promote massive clean offshore wind development and thousands of clean energy jobs and billions of dollars to the region.
Today, the Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) Board voted to build a new gas-fired power plant as part of its long-term, electric resource plan (ERP), which derails the utility’s 2018 commitment to 100% carbon-free power by 2030. PRPA is now the only utility in Colorado with plans to build new, permanent fossil fuel-powered generation.
Six months after a poorly executed implosion at the former Crawford coal plant, community activists are escalating the demand for answers with billboards calling out the developer, Hilco Redevelopment Partners (Hilco), about continued lack of transparency and cooperation. Since May, the City of Chicago has only hosted one community meeting, with no professional Spanish interpretation, while Hilco has hosted a single meeting only after a mandate from the City. The environmental disaster at the Crawford site blanketed Little Village in a toxic dust cloud and both Hilco and City officials have failed to provide adequate information on the dangers residents may have been exposed to. Hilco is working to redevelop the coal plant site into a truck depot for retail giant Target.
This morning Alliant Energy announced that by the end of 2022, the utility plans to retire the last 275 MW power generating unit at its Lansing coal plant near Lansing, Iowa, and will invest in 400 MW of solar generation by the end of 2023, and up to 100 MW of distributed energy resources, like community solar or storage resources, by 2026. The Lansing plant emitted over 250,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide in 2019 and carbon emissions equivalent to over 100,000 cars. The announcement is part of Alliant’s Clean Energy Blueprint, the company’s “path for accelerating their transition to cleaner energy for customers.” In addition to providing advance notice about retirement, Alliant pledged to provide career assistance and coaching to help prepare workers to transition into other jobs.