** A U.S. EPA document shows the Trump administration intends to exempt 47 coal power plants from updated mercury and toxic emissions rules, including the Colstrip and Apache facilities in Montana and Arizona. ** Tri-State Generation and Transmission proposes a 307 MW natural gas plant and a 200 MW battery storage system in northwestern Colorado …
Category: EPA
Energy briefs
** BP has made an oil discovery at the Far South field in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, it said on Monday, as the energy major seeks to grow production under a strategy reset announced earlier this year. The exploration well was drilled in Green Canyon Block 584 about 120 miles (193.12 km) off the coast of …
Energy briefs
** Every anti-energy regulation at the EPA, the Department of Energy, the Interior Department, and the Army Corps of Engineers will sunset unless specifically designated for re-promulgation under Trump’s new “Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting” executive order. ** The date for the International Linemen’s Rodeo has been set for October 15-18 of this year in Overland Park, …
EPA okays first carbon capture project in Texas
While Oklahoma legislators considered a carbon capture bill this session, in Texas, the EPA has approved a company’s carbon capture project. The Environmental Protection Agency gave approval to Occidental Petroleum Corporation’s application to capture carbon dioxide and inject it underground at a site near the city of Odessa. It is the first such …
Energy briefs
** President Trump is expected to sign executive orders this week supporting the coal industry, including using emergency powers to force some coal plants slated for closure to stay open. ** One person was injured after a “well control incident” at a Chevron oil and gas facility northeast of Greeley, Colorado that prompted evacuations and …
Energy briefs
** Oil company Chevron must pay $744.6 million to restore damage it caused to southeast Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, a jury ruled on Friday following a landmark trial more than a decade in the making. The case was the first of dozens of pending lawsuits to reach trial in Louisiana against the world’s leading oil companies for their role …
Nominees to state water, air and environmental boards approved
Nominations to state boards focused on water, the environment and air quality won unanimous approval Thursday in a meeting of the Oklahoma Senate Energy Committee. Mark A. Helm of Edmond was nominated to serve a second seven- year term to the Oklahoma Mining Commission. The vote was 6-0 for a term ending in 2032. …
Energy briefs
** A federal judge on Wednesday pressed an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency about whether the agency broke the law when it swiftly terminated $20 billion worth of grants awarded to nonprofits for a green bank by allegedly bulldozing past proper rules and raising flimsy accusations of waste and fraud. ** CenterPoint Energy has completed the …
Energy briefs
** Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs legislation into law classifying nuclear power as “clean energy” after it passed the legislature with bipartisan support. ** The Kansas City area could add another data center — this one to the tune of $12 billion spread across six buildings in Wyandotte County. ** A company halts the environmental …
Workers charged with pollution of Oklahoma County creek
Oklahoma County prosecutors recently filed two Bethany-Warr Acres wastewater treatment plant workers with felony charges of allowing sewage to leak into a northwest county creek. The workers, Glenn Brentnell, 63, and Anthony Menzie, 55, were charged following an investigation by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. Click here for The Oklahoman