** ERCOT on Friday notified power generators in Texas that they need to be online and ready to provide power during an expected wave of cold air that could drop overnight temperatures into the 20s late next week. ** CubicPV Inc., a startup backed by Bill Gates, plans to construct a $1 billion silicon wafer factory for solar panels in …
Category: EPA
Other headlines
** The Senate has bucked Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) latest effort to get his energy deal with Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) attached to must-pass legislation. The chamber blocked Manchin’s permitting reform amendment from getting onto a defense funding bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act in an 47-47 vote. Sixty votes were needed to advance …
Other energy headlines
** Members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis say more remains to be done as the panel wraps up its work ahead of the new Congress. ** President Biden wants Americans to know gas prices are falling fast—and he deserves the credit. The average pump price has plunged from $5 per gallon in June …
Other energy notes
** U.S. natural gas futures jumped about 7% to a two-week high on Tuesday on forecasts for colder weather and higher heating demand through at least the end of December. ** The American Petroleum Institute and the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Scientific Center for Standardization, Certification and Quality Problems” signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote the …
Energy headlines
** The United States has shipped the first part of its power equipment aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said on Monday, as Washington works to support the country’s energy infrastructure against intensifying attacks from Russia. ** New U.S. solar installations are on track to fall by nearly a quarter this year, with panel imports stalled by …
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** The U.S. Department of Energy said Sunday it would announce a “major scientific breakthrough” this week, after media reported a federal laboratory had recently achieved a major milestone in nuclear fusion research. The Financial Times reported Sunday that scientists in the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) had achieved a “net energy gain” from an …
Why isn’t Energy Department spending more on finding fraud and abuse? Rep. Lucas wants answers
Oklahoma congressman Frank Lucas raised questions about why the Inspector General at the Energy Department is underfunded. As Ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, he and Texas Republican Rep. Randy Weber, who is also on the committee, sent a letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. The …
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** In 15 U.S. states last year, coal was used to generate electricity more than any other energy source. Twenty years earlier, in 2001, coal was the largest source of electricity generation in 32 states. The United States has shifted away from coal-fired generation since it peaked in 2007 and toward natural gas and renewables. …
Headlines of other energy stories
** California lawmakers on Monday introduced legislation to penalize oil companies for alleged price gouging, setting up a showdown with an industry that has long wielded political influence in the Golden State. ** Congressional Democratic leaders are pushing to include legislation spurring oil and gas drilling that is desired by Democrat West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin within the annual …
EPA announces proposed biofuel blending requirements
Under proposed new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, refinery operators in Oklahoma and across the rest of the nation will have to blend a certain volume of biofuel into the national pool of retail fuel That or else buy credits from other refiners participating in the program. The EPA’s announced rule also incorporate fuels …