Back
EFFICIENCY: Volunteers with a Virginia climate group partner with four nonprofits to encourage their low-income clients to register for no-cost energy efficiency upgrades. (Energy News Network)
OIL & GAS: The specter of South Carolina’s $9 billion failed construction of a nuclear plant looms over new efforts by Dominion Energy and state-owned utility Santee Cooper to build a natural gas-fired power plant. (Post and Courier)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY:
NUCLEAR: Kentucky lawmakers unanimously pass legislation to prep the state for nuclear energy development, but clarify they see nuclear power as a complement and not replacement for coal. (Associated Press)
HYDROGEN: Texas boosters hype hydrogen as a clean fuel option for transportation companies, but critics warn that making it by using fossil fuels will further strengthen the oil and gas industry. (Texas Tribune)
WIND: Federal officials plan to auction leases for offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico in four locations that are smaller than initially planned, but larger than last year’s auction. (NOLA.com)
GRID:
OVERSIGHT: Georgia lawmakers pass legislation to increase state energy regulators’ terms from six to eight years, as a long-running legal case that halted elections for the offices appears to be nearing a conclusion. (Associated Press)
CARBON CAPTURE: Louisiana State University plans to drill a well on campus to test carbon capture technology. (KTBS)
COMMENTARY: The natural gas industry’s promise to generate economic prosperity in Appalachia never came to pass even during times of booming output, and efforts to build a hydrogen hub will likely suffer the same fate while continuing to defile the land, writes a climate activist. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)
Four environmental groups filed an appeal Friday challenging an Ohio judge’s order declining to review state regulators’ decisions to allow oil and gas drilling under state park and wildlife areas.
The Notice of Appeal filed with Franklin County Court of Common Pleas takes issue with Judge Jaiza Page’s Feb. 23 order, which said the groups had no right to challenge rulings by the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission last November to allow drilling and fracking under Salt Fork State Park, Zepernick Wildlife Area and Valley Run Wildlife Area.
“Our appeal continues the fight for legal accountability and oversight of the commission’s decisions,” said Earthjustice attorney Megan Hunter, who is one of the lawyers representing groups in the appeal. Those groups include Save Ohio Parks, the Buckeye Environmental Network, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and the Ohio Environmental Council.
The move to drill and frack under state-owned lands was jump-started last year when Gov. Mike DeWine signed HB 507 into law. The statute would have required state agencies to lease lands unless the commission adopted rules and lease terms under a 2011 law. The leasing process under that law had languished after a widespread backlash a decade ago.
Once the commission adopted the rules and lease terms last spring, HB 507 no longer imposed any mandatory duty to allow drilling on state-owned lands. Instead, Ohio law requires the commission to consider nine factors. They include environmental impacts, effects on visitors or users of state-owned lands, economic benefits, public comments, and more.
In this case, the environmental groups claimed the commission didn’t consider all nine factors before reaching its decisions. They also objected to the commission’s failure to hold a hearing and accept public testimony for the proposed parcels at each park and wildlife area. Comments on the proposals detailed worries about possible contamination from accidents, anticipated interference with people’s ability to enjoy state parks and wildlife areas, and other objections.
Judge Page’s ruling rejected the environmental groups’ argument that the commission’s rulings could be appealed under a general statutory provision for “adjudication orders.” Instead, she noted there was no specific statutory language dealing with appeals from the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission. She also found the groups did not have standing to raise their claims.
Days after Judge Page’s ruling, the commission accepted a bid from Infinity Natural Resources, based in West Virginia, to drill under Salt Fork State Park. The commission also accepted Texas-based Encino Energy’s bids to drill under Zepernick Wildlife Area and Valley Run Wildlife area. Unless blocked, drilling is likely to start this spring.
Without judicial review of the commission’s actions, it’s unclear what checks, if any, exist over the commission’s decisions on drilling beneath park and wildlife areas.
“The Commission handed over Valley Run Wildlife Area, Zepernick Wildlife Area and Ohio’s largest state park — Salt Fork State Park — to drillers without considering the environmental and geologic impacts of oil and gas development,” Hunter said. “Thousands of state residents and users of these protected public lands demand accountability for this enormous failing.”
A separate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of HB 507 remains pending. Meanwhile, new filings this month ask the commission to allow drilling and fracking under Egypt Valley Wildlife Area and Keen Wildlife Area.
ADVOCACY: Ohio’s consumer advocate wants the state Supreme Court to overturn a decision that prevented it from representing apartment residents in a case involving a submetering company. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: A Sierra Club lobbyist says Kansas lawmakers lack a cohesive energy policy strategy, with ongoing debate about whether the state should support renewable energy. (Kansas Reflector)
GRID:
PIPELINES:
UTILITIES: The former ComEd CEO convicted of bribery conspiracy asks a judge to delay the U.S. SEC’s civil case against her. (Center Square)
OIL & GAS: DTE Energy is among U.S. gas utilities passing on the costs of purchasing “responsible gas” to customers, a process that critics say has questionable climate benefits. (DeSmog)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Indiana officials leading an economic development trade trip to South Korea this week aim to attract more electric vehicle investments. (Indianapolis Business Journal)
CLIMATE: Kansas City is embarking on an aggressive tree-planting strategy to help address heat islands in older, poorer sections of the city. (Flatland)
BATTERIES: A Michigan startup developing technology to double the range and capacity of conventional batteries cuts 37 jobs to reduce operating expenses. (Crain’s Detroit Business, subscription)
COMMENTARY: A top ranking Ohio Democrat says federal prosecutors need to further investigate what Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration knew about details of FirstEnergy’s corruption scheme. (Columbus Dispatch)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: The dwindling population of a historic Alabama community founded by former enslaved people fights the two-mile expansion of a rail line in a neighborhood already besieged by industrial pollution. (Next City/Reckon)
COAL: Kentucky lawmakers advance a bill to form a commission charged with assessing energy generation and demand, likely adding yet another obstacle for utilities who want to retire aging and inefficient coal-fired power plants. (Associated Press)
WIND: Dominion Energy will pay a Virginia city and historic lighthouse nearly $1 million to compensate for affecting their ocean views as it builds a sizable offshore wind farm. (Virginian-Pilot)
NUCLEAR: Virginia lawmakers consider two proposals to let utilities charge ratepayers to develop advanced nuclear reactors, with the bills applying separately to Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy, along with some other differences. (Virginia Mercury)
SOLAR: A Texas-based automotive supplier will source power from a 2.6 MW solar array on neighboring land in one of the state’s first three-party energy purchase agreements. (KABB)
CLIMATE:
OIL & GAS: Mexico stands to become a major player in the global market for liquified natural gas, but the Biden administration’s pause on permitting LNG export facilities in the U.S. has delayed that prospect and given climate activists more time to fight back. (Inside Climate News)
PIPELINES: A Canadian pipeline operator announces it will spend $500 million to expand its network and storage facilities along the Gulf Coast after raising its projected profits from purchasing three gas utilities from Dominion Energy. (Reuters)
EFFICIENCY:
EMISSIONS:
Ohio’s public advocate for residential ratepayers wants the state’s high court to reverse a decision that blocked it from fully participating in a case it says adversely affected the rights of more than 1,000 people living in apartments.
The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel was denied intervenor status in a Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) case over whether a company that provides billing and other electricity services for landlords is acting as a utility.
AEP Ohio accused the electrical submetering company Nationwide Energy Partners of usurping part of its role and offering services that infringed on its territory as a regulated, public utility.
The PUCO ruled last year in Nationwide’s favor, essentially stripping residents of five properties from several consumer protections and benefits that state law provides for utility customers.
The consumer advocate has appealed the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, saying that regulators should have let it represent the interests of the apartment residents.
The case now before the Ohio Supreme Court began in late 2021 when AEP Ohio objected to a request that it drop nearly 1,100 residential accounts for people living in five Columbus-area apartment complexes. Nationwide would buy electricity for each complex from the utility and resell it to residents at a higher rate.
“From the customers’ perspective, Nationwide would be stepping into the shoes of AEP Ohio,” the complaint alleged. As such, it would be “mimicking a public utility and doing exactly what AEP Ohio currently does.”
The Consumers’ Counsel moved to intervene so it could represent the interests of the residents, who were not otherwise represented in the regulatory case. Nationwide objected, casting the case as just a commercial dispute.
While anyone can submit public comments in utility regulatory cases, formal intervenors become parties to the case and have a full seat at the table. The status includes rights to conduct pre-hearing fact-finding, brief legal issues, introduce evidence, and present or cross-examine witnesses.
Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis said utilities, marketers and submetering companies “will face far less resistance to their proposals” if the agency is precluded from doing its job. An Ohio statute says that job includes intervening in and representing residential consumers’ interests at the PUCO, in court and before other agencies.
The PUCO “typically” grants the Consumers’ Counsel’s requests for intervention, said Ohio Deputy Consumers’ Counsel Angela O’Brien. “That being said, intervention by OCC is our statutory right and one that we closely guard in order to give consumers a voice on utility issues that matter to them,” she said.
In this case, a 2022 PUCO order denied the Consumers’ Counsel’s motion to intervene. Interests in protecting consumers were “not the issues that will be litigated in this proceeding,” the order said. The commission ruled in September 2023 that Nationwide is not a public utility and reaffirmed its decision in December 2023.
Ashley Brown, a former PUCO commissioner, said it was “crazy” for regulators to keep the Consumers’ Counsel out of the case. The ruling that Nationwide is not a utility “create[s] this inferior species of consumer at the whim of the landlord,” he said.
Among other things, a forced switch of tenants away from utility service makes them give up their rights under metering rules, eligibility for percentage-of-income-payment plans (PIPP), procedures required before shutoffs, access to the PUCO’s call-in line and procedures for filing complaints against regulated electric companies, and more. Ratepayers of regulated electric distribution utilities also have a general right to choose a competitive electricity generation supplier.
The PUCO ruling also means residents won’t be guaranteed the right to benefit from time-of-day rates or other demand-side programs that could improve grid reliability, Brown said. Similarly, tenants won’t be eligible for utilities’ energy efficiency programs if pending legislation clears the way for those to start up again after the state’s 2019 nuclear and coal bailout law gutted Ohio’s prior clean energy standards.
Similar issues are presented in another regulatory case involving Duke Energy and Nationwide Energy Partners. The PUCO has not yet ruled on the Consumers’ Counsel motion to intervene there. Duke Energy Ohio supports the Consumers’ Counsel’s participation, while Nationwide opposes it.
AEP Ohio has sided with the Consumers’ Counsel, saying a forced switch will cause customers to lose rights they’ve had as ratepayers.
“We believe all customers in our service territory should be able to easily understand their bill and get all of the same regulatory protections when offered utility service by someone other than their landlord,” said spokesperson Scott Blake, adding that submetering companies generally don’t make the same types of low-income help available to residents.
AEP Ohio has a separate appeal pending at the Ohio Supreme Court, where it challenges the PUCO’s finding that Nationwide is not a regulated utility. AEP Ohio also challenges parts of the PUCO’s order requiring it to place consumer-protection conditions in its contract with Nationwide. AEP Ohio’s filing describes those conditions as unworkable, unreasonable and unlawful, adding that any tariff requirements should be adopted through notice-and-comment rulemaking.
On Feb. 23, Nationwide moved to intervene in the Consumers’ Counsel’s appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, as well as in AEP Ohio’s appeal. If the Consumers’ Counsel wins, Nationwide “will be forced to incur the cost of expensive and unnecessary re-litigation of the issues already decided by the PUCO,” lawyers for the company wrote.
“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on open dockets,” said Teresa Ringenbach, Nationwide’s vice president of business development, when asked if the company would have dropped its opposition to the Consumers’ Counsel’s intervention if it knew a denial would lead to the appeal before the state supreme court. She did say Nationwide is prohibited from offering PIPP for tenants, but some other payment assistance programs may be available.
“The commission speaks through its opinions and orders and other rulings,” PUCO spokesperson Matt Schilling said when asked for comment. “Each case is heard on its own merits on a case-by-case basis,” based on Ohio law and rules, he added.
The Consumers’ Counsel represents residential ratepayers in hundreds of cases, but the AEP Ohio and Duke submetering cases are not the only instances where it has been denied participation. A September 2023 ruling kept the Consumers’ Counsel from intervening in a case dealing with a $5.2 million increase in AEP Ohio charges to ratepayers to cover low-income assistance programs.
The Consumers’ Counsel was also initially excluded from a case to settle price gouging claims, where some customers’ monthly bills were nearly $700 per month. The PUCO’s initial December 2023 order said the case involved “the resolution of fact-specific issues between Staff and Inspire Energy and only those issues.” The Consumers’ Counsel pushed for reconsideration, and the commission reversed that ruling on Feb. 7.
In Brown’s view, the Consumers’ Counsel should have had full party status from the get-go in both the price gouging case and the submetering case.
“The whole idea of having a public utilities commission is that things are open, they’re transparent, they’re participatory. You give consumers access,” Brown said.
Karin Nordstrom, an attorney with the Ohio Environmental Council, said Ohio law favors broad intervention in PUCO matters. Also, she said, “consumers must have access to reliable utility service as we face more severe weather due to climate change.” Without discussing the merits of any particular case, she added that a well-funded consumers’ counsel with access to experts “is an imperative component of maintaining a fair and transparent utility process.”
For now, the Consumers’ Counsel’s brief in the submetering case is due at the Ohio Supreme Court later this month. That date might shift if a motion for extension is filed or if the Ohio Supreme Court consolidates the case with AEP Ohio’s appeal.
SOLAR: A company encourages Black farmers in the Southeast to lease some of their property for solar projects to add a new source of income. (Civil Eats)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
PIPELINES:
RENEWABLE GAS: Florida lawmakers consider legislation to allow utilities to charge customers for “renewable gas” projects, but clean energy advocates warn the move could keep the state tied to gas combustion and fossil fuels. (WLRN)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blames electric vehicles for a 20% year-over-year increase in the cost of auto insurance. (Florida Politics)
NUCLEAR: Virginia lawmakers advance legislation to allow Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy to recover costs from developing small modular nuclear reactors. (Virginia Mercury)
CLEAN ENERGY: A Texas county board votes to approve agreements that clear the way for an energy company to build a hydrogen plant, solar farm and wind farm totalling 1,500 MW. (KVII)
GRID:
EMISSIONS: A Texas oil and gas company will pay $4 million for air pollution violations due to improper storage at 23 facilities in Texas and New Mexico. (USA Today)
CLIMATE: New research from Virginia Tech and a federal agency shows much of the East Coast is sinking due to groundwater depletion, compounding the concurrent problem of rising sea levels. (New York Times)
COMMENTARY: Time is running out for Georgia lawmakers to push Georgia Power to store its coal ash more responsibly and to take action against a mining threat to the Okefenokee Swamp, writes a publisher. (Georgia Recorder)
OIL & GAS: California regulators propose halting issuance of new permits for hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas well stimulation treatments, citing widespread public concern over the impacts. (Courthouse News)
ALSO:
STORAGE: Federal regulators advance a proposed 1,200 MW pumped hydropower storage project in Washington state, raising concerns among tribal nations and environmentalists. (OPB)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY:
BIOFUELS: Nevada advocates push back on a proposal to harvest pinyon and juniper trees to produce methanol, saying the long-term damage to forest ecosystems outweighs any short-term carbon emission reductions. (Los Angeles Times)
HYDROPOWER: California’s grid operator says a series of recent storms should boost this summer’s output from the state’s hydroelectric facilities. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Wyoming lawmakers are set to consider several bills aimed at keeping utility rates affordable, but critics say the proposed legislation may only sow confusion. (Wyoming Public Radio)
POLITICS: Utah lawmakers advance a proposal to overhaul the state’s energy policy and prioritize fossil fuel generation over clean energy. (Deseret News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Colorado awards a town and nonprofit $185,000 to purchase 50 electric bicycles for low-income residents. (Steamboat Pilot)
COAL: A freight train derails in northern California, spilling an undetermined amount of coal into the Feather River. (CBS Sacramento)
SOLAR: A Minnesota solar nonprofit matches socially conscious investors’ cash with lower-income homeowners to spread the benefits of clean energy in a Minneapolis neighborhood. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: Solar output is poised to steadily grow in South Dakota after the state’s first utility-scale project came online in late 2023. (PV Magazine)
ELECTRIFICATION: A proposed ordinance would make Chicago the first major Midwestern city to ban natural gas hookups in most new construction. (Grist)
POLITICS: Nebraska lawmakers advance a bill that would end nonpartisan elections to the state’s two largest public power districts as supporters decry outside political contributions to clean energy supporters. (Lincoln Journal Star)
PIPELINES:
CLEAN ENERGY: Michigan’s sweeping new climate and renewable energy laws will help increase the amount of federal clean energy funding that flows to the state, experts say. (Michigan Advance)
UTILITIES:
STORAGE: Indiana regulators approve plans for a 200 MW battery storage facility that’s expected to come online by the end of the year. (Vincennes PBS)
WIND: North Dakota regulators are holding a hearing today on plans for a 200 MW, $316 million wind project in the heart of the state’s coal country. (North Dakota Monitor)
EFFICIENCY:
BIOGAS: Minnesota county officials will hold public hearings in the coming weeks on plans for a $13.9 million renewable natural gas pipeline. (West Central Tribune)
COMMENTARY:
CLIMATE: National business and agricultural groups sue California over new laws requiring large companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-related data, saying they overstep federal regulatory authority. (Associated Press)
OIL & GAS:
FOSSIL FUELS: Wyoming awards $157 million to six projects aimed at developing cleaner uses for fossil fuels. (Casper Star-Tribune)
COAL: Utah lawmakers introduce bills aimed at keeping coal plants running longer, but consumer advocates worry they could drive up rates. (Salt Lake Tribune)
MINING:
UTILITIES:
WIND: California regulators advance a proposed 60 MW floating wind turbine installation off the central coast that would power a U.S. Space Force base. (Offshore Wind)
GRID:
POLLUTION: Republican Utah lawmakers push back on state regulators’ proposal to limit gas-powered lawn equipment use in some areas when air quality is bad, saying it would restrict freedoms. (Salt Lake Tribune)
HYDROGEN: Wyoming awards a company $16 million for its proposed coal-to-hydrogen conversion plant with carbon capture and sequestration. (Power)
COMMENTARY: A former Arizona utility regulator says the state’s rapid adoption of grid-scale battery storage stabilizes the grid and gives consumers more energy options. (Arizona Republic)
PIPELINES: Iowa lawmakers consider a bill that would give them power to block attempts by developers to secure eminent domain for a carbon pipeline. (Des Moines Register)
ALSO:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID:
OVERSIGHT: Documents show that Ohio regulators accepted utility companies’ claims of trade secrets to protect information about coal plant operations, even though the data was publicly available in some cases. (Checks & Balances Project)
BIOGAS: Environmental and farming groups say a 28-mile, $13.9 million renewable natural gas pipeline planned to serve four large dairies would lead to further consolidation in the agriculture sector. (Star Tribune)
EFFICIENCY: Energy efficiency has had a big year in Michigan as a new state law requires all utilities to offer energy-saving programs, federal rebates help offset residential investments, and Detroit starts measuring use in large buildings. (Planet Detroit)
.svg)
