Power plant emissions rule likely to exclude hydrogen

OVERSIGHT: Hydrogen industry leaders and environmentalists expect the U.S. EPA to exclude hydrogen from its final power plant emissions rule, leaving carbon capture as the only option for gas plants looking to reduce emissions to meet the regulation. (E&E News)

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FOSSIL FUELS:

• The U.S. Interior Department finalizes a new rule that would let public lands be leased for conservation just as they’re leased for fossil fuel extraction. (Associated Press)
• The Biden administration blocks new oil and gas drilling on more than half of the federal petroleum reserve in the Alaskan Arctic; the ban will not affect the controversial Willow project. (Associated Press)

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PIPELINES: A major CO2 pipeline leak this month in Louisiana that took more than two hours to fix should raise “alarm bells” about the country’s readiness to expand the carbon capture industry, advocates say. (Guardian)  

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CLIMATE:

• Record numbers of people went to emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses last summer, which was the U.S.’s hottest on record. (CNN)
• Meteorologists forecast a “hyperactive” Atlantic hurricane season that could see as many as 24 named storms, up from the long-term annual average of 14. (Axios)

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GRID:

• Several U.S. utilities are particularly well positioned to financially benefit from building out generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure as data centers drive up power demand. (S&P Global)
• Democratic lawmakers propose requiring federal energy regulators to roll out regulations that would ease the way for new power generation and storage resources to join the grid. (Utility Dive)
• An investigation finds Hawaiian Electric did not immediately respond to an alert of downed power lines prior to last year’s deadly Maui wildfires. (Washington Post)

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WIND:

• A study names the U.S. Midwest as one of the best locations worldwide for generating wind power. (Guardian)
• An Ørsted executive says the wave of East Coast project cancellations shows how offshore wind developers need to derisk their projects as early as possible before making final investments. (Utility Dive)

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OIL & GAS:

• A settlement for cleanup workers in BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has fallen far short of expectations, leaving the vast majority of workers with no more than $1,300 each for complicated, lasting health conditions. (Associated Press)
• Congressional Republicans grill a Biden administration official over how the pause on permitting new liquified natural gas export terminals is affecting U.S. allies in Asia and Europe. (Houston Chronicle)

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OHIO: The death of Ohio’s former top utility regulator stokes a growing sense of urgency among plaintiffs and prosecutors to gather evidence and testimony in HB6 corruption cases before it’s lost to time. (Energy News Network)

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