DOE funding, nuclear approvals lead energy briefs

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U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $175 million in funding for six projects to modernize, retrofit, and extend the useful life of coal-fired power plants serving rural and remote communities across the United States, keeping dependable energy sources online, strengthening grid reliability, and helping keep electricity costs low for American families and businesses. The plants are in Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia.
President Donald Trump criticizes a deal between California and the United Kingdom to cooperate on clean energy development and expand British firms’ access to the California market.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves the first licenses for new nuclear fuel facilities in more than 50 years, including a permit for TRISO-X to produce fuel for next-generation reactors.

Four months after it opened with fanfare and promises of stable, high paying jobs, a $5.8 billion battery plant backed by Ford Motor Company and South Korea’s SK On is now sitting idle in Glendale, Kentucky. About 1,600 workers are out of a job, and a political firestorm has erupted over who is to blame.
Hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled into a portion of the Potomac River just outside of Washington, D.C., after a major sewer pipe broke in January, according to the local public utility company. The sewage also poured into portions of the Chesapeake and Ohio National Historic Site, one of the 75 historic sites managed by the National Park Service (NPS).

Refinery giant Valero is already tapping into the oil reserves in Venezuela and has locked up multiple shipments of Venezuelan oil from licensed sellers at discounts reportedly near $9 per barrel compared to Brent prices, according to Argus Research.
The Trump administration has stopped sending money from Venezuelan oil sales to a U.S.-controlled bank account in Qatar, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC News this week, adding that revenue from Venezuelan oil sales has surpassed $1 billion.
Hungary is buying Russian oil despite alternative supplies being available, according to a report that accuses Budapest of failing to pass down to consumers the savings it makes from buying cheap Russian fuels.