** Mountain Valley Pipeline officials say the long-delayed project should be completed later this year, after Congress passed a provision of the debt limit deal that dismisses current legal challenges to its permits. ** A new study from clean energy advocates finds that North Dakota wasted $680 million in 2019 through flaring, venting and leaks from oil and gas …
Category: Wind Energy
Wind industry to see big boost from Inflation Reduction Act
While the Biden administration’s green energy plans have drawn criticism from conservative members of Congress, the $390 billion targeted over 10 years for renewable energy will likely help some cities where the wind energy industry suffered. Two such sites were Siemens Gamesa wind farm manufacturing plants in Hutchinson, Kansas and Lee County, Iowa. The …
Energy headlines from around the world
** Folded into the debt-ceiling bill that passed the Senate on Thursday are measures that could speed up the building of energy projects in the US. They are an update of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA — long a punching bag for critics on both sides of the aisle who say the environmental permitting process for new projects takes too long …
Headlines of other energy stories
** A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has reached its full power output for the first time and is scheduled to enter commercial operation within the next month. Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has reached its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity. ** Anti-pipeline activists gear …
How Texas turned away from supporting renewable energy projects
Texas legislators took a turn this year in their support for renewable energy projects—wind and solar. Their previous support created the number one renewable energy producing state in the country. But this year, legislators reversed their support and decided through legislation, to do more to support the fossil fuel industry that made the oil …
Energy briefs
** U.S. natural gas production is expected to rise until 2050, according to a report released Tuesday by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which said most of the demand fueling that increase will be driven by exports to foreign markets. U.S. domestic gas demand will stay flat or decline as renewables come online, the report found. But …
Evergy buys northwest Oklahoma wind farm
The Western Oklahoma Persimmon Creek wind farm has a new owner. Colorado-based Scout Clean Energy and its joint venture partner Elawan Energy recently sold the wind farm to Evergy. The farm is located in Woodward, Ellis and Dewey Counties and covers an estimated 17,000 acres of land. Permission Creek began operations in 2018 and …
Energy briefs
** Exxon Mobil Corp. said the prospect of the world reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 is “highly unlikely” due to the drop in living standards that would come with such a scenario. The Texas oil giant made the comments in a regulatory filing that argued against proxy adviser Glass Lewis’ view that …
Major power line project wins final approval in New Mexico
The U.S. Interior Department formally signed off on a 250-mile multi-billion dollar transmission line that will carry wind-powered electricity from New Mexico to big cities in the West. The department approved the SunZia project that has been a decade in the making. Approval would have been earlier but in 2021, a new application had …
Brief energy stories
** Remember SamBrinton, the former senior Energy Department non-binary? He’s been arrested again, this time as a “fugitive from justice” by police in Maryland. ** The United States should develop its own clean energy supply “soup to nuts” — but that doesn’t mean banning Chinese products, a top Biden administration official said Thursday. At POLITICO’s first-ever energy …