The U.S. State Department issued its final environmental impact statement on the Keystone XL Pipeline project. The study, which raised no major concerns, clears the way for the 875-mile pipeline project to proceed and, as some have noted, gives President Obama some political latitude to endorse it. The route has changed since the State
Regulatory
Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission Tackles the Conundrum of Distributed Energy, Part 2
By Elaine Spencer on
As I tried to describe in part one of this article, Washington has some structural challenges that impair its ability to develop distributed energy as a significant alternative to fossil fuel-powered electrical power generation. The regulatory system that has been built up over the last 100 years has powerful constituencies that it must protect.…
Score One for Producing Electricity from Biomass
By Elaine Spencer on
We always seem to prefer our energy to come in a form where we can’t really know where it came from. Gasoline comes from a pump at the gas station, doesn’t it? And electricity comes in wires to our house, right? If I can’t see where it comes from beyond that, doesn’t that mean that…
EPA Gives Itself Three More Years To Figure Out A Tailoring Rule For Biomass Energy
By Elaine Spencer on
The Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq was adopted in the early 1960s to insure that business and industry does not spew pollutants into the air, causing harm to humans, plants and animals. Congress found that “the growth in the amount and complexity of air pollution brought about by urbanization, industrial development,…