News Roundup
News Roundup For June 30
EPA EXTENSION
Lisa Jackson
The Environmental Protection Agency said it will meet its critics part of the way on adding time for input on its new mercury and air toxics standards. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency will push back the deadline for public comment by 30 days, to Aug. 4. Citing the complexity of the regulations, utilities had sought a 60-day extension. The standards will require coal-based generating units to reduce emissions of mercury and other pollutants from plants in 46 states. A final rule is expected in November.
GERMAN COLLABORATION
U.S. and German scientists are going to put their heads together on solar energy, under an agreement announced June 23. Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the German Helmholtz Association plan to explore materials that could make solar cells lightweight and efficient. Of special interest, according to NREL, are thin films made of copper, indium and gallium that could replace silicon in next-generation solar arrays. The memorandum of understanding was signed in Berlin by NREL and three institutes within the Helmholtz Association.
REGIONAL DISCORD
A fight is brewing in New Jersey between Gov. Chris Christie, who wants to pull the state out of a regional carbon trading program, and lawmakers, who want the state to stay put. The Democrat-controlled Senate voted June 27 for a resolution that says New Jersey should be a part of the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Christie announced May 26 that New Jersey is withdrawing from RGGI, as it’s known, as of Dec. 31. The Christie administration has suggested the governor will veto attempts to thwart his plans.
HYDRO LEADER
Led by hydro, total electric power generation in the United States increased 4.1 percent in April, compared with April 2010, the Energy Information Administration said June 24. Conventional hydro production jumped by a whopping 67.3 percent, thanks to record levels of snowpack runoff in the Pacific Northwest. During the same period, coal generation decreased 2.2 percent, while natural gas generation increased 4.2 percent. Nuclear dropped 5.3 percent because more plants were off-line for refueling outages than a year ago, EIA said.
—Based on news and wire reports
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