CA Current

Federal energy regulators made permanent natural gas constraints the California Independent System Operator imposed temporarily on Southern California power plants. This is a “just and reasonable approach” to “ensure CAISO continues to have the tools necessary to address risks associated with the potential impacts of the continued limited operability of Aliso Canyon on the reliability […]

Nearly a dozen energy bills, from promoting renewable energy innovation to increasing grid cybersecurity, were presented to a U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee subcommittee Nov. 6. A key focus of the package is beefing up energy technology innovation to “lower emissions and maintain a modern economy,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). “Advancing non-polluting […]

Updated Sept. 12. A California Public Utilities Commission proposal seeks to improve reliability and drive down greenhouse gases from the energy sector. It was released just after the CPUC’s Sept. 12  business meeting. The proposed decision directs private utilities, community choice aggregators and direct access providers to buy 2,500 MW  to ensure power flow reliability […]

In a strike against supposed elite environmentalism, the Trump Administration Sept. 4 reversed regulations designed to advance the use of LED lighting to specialty bulbs. It also signaled it soon plans to rescind the LED standard for general lighting. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project estimate that eliminating […]

Legislators and policy makers displayed wide differences regarding the future of automotive standards aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions June 20 during a joint hearing of the House Energy & Commerce Consumer Protection & Commerce and Environment & Climate Change Subcommittees. The panels delved into the Trump Administration’s plan to freeze Obama era standards modeled […]

The growing importance of assessing the greenhouse gas impacts of natural gas project permitting and better integrating distributed energy and energy storage into the wholesale market was stressed this week by a House Energy & Commerce Committee subpanel. The June 12 hearing of the Energy Subcommittee focused on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s policies and […]

Updated May 22. A U.S. Senate panel heard encouraging news about the advance of renewable power and energy efficiency this week despite the ongoing drum beat in Washington about the need to preserve coal power plants and drill for more oil. Wind and solar will be the fastest growing sources of power over the next […]

Amid hurricanes, floods, fires, cyber threats, and a changing power generation resource mix, concerns are rising in Washington about the ability of the nation’s power industry to restore the grid after widespread blackouts. “The question we have to be able to answer,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), chair of the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural […]

When I was a young reporter in Washington in the early 1980s covering the telecommunications industry, the policy vision was to unleash competition to advance technologies and eventually create what was called the Integrated Services Digital Network, or ISDN. ISDN was to become a single operating network through which all communications could flow—including phone calls, […]

Federal energy regulators ranked the security of the nation’s electric grid, dams, and oil and gas pipelines as the number one priority for the energy industry during an April 17 House Energy & Commerce Energy Subcommittee hearing. Cyberattacks on the grid and other energy facilities “are constant,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Kevin McIntyre told […]

A House panel took up legislation to guard the nation’s energy systems against cyber attacks amid growing concern about potential threats to the electric grid, pipelines, and liquefied natural gas import and export terminals. “The increasingly interconnected nature of our energy systems are changing how we prepare for and respond to emergencies that threaten the […]

The California grid operator plans to move into the western reliability coordination market. And, it plans to do so at a steep discount. An independent group of scientists finds that gas storage fields are needed now, but might later be converted to store clean fuels or captured carbon dioxide. Forthcoming federal standards aim to improve […]

Federal regulators Jan. 18 approved new rules to strengthen cybersecurity for software, industrial control hardware, and computing and networking systems used to operate the nation’s bulk power system. The so-called “supply chain risk management protections” are supposed to guard against adversaries who would disrupt the grid by supplying counterfeit equipment and by tampering with the […]

Key energy policy developments continued to unfold over the holiday period in California and the nation, with state utility regulators proposing a gas hookup moratorium in Los Angeles County for new homes and buildings and Marin County local government agencies going 100 percent renewable. In addition, Pacific Gas & Electric announced it was not paying […]

California utility regulators ongoing struggle with how to create more customer choice in electricity was not alleviated during a workshop held in the state capital building this week. At the end of the day, few concrete proposals emerged from various industry stakeholders’ differing, but largely piecemeal perspectives. The Oct.31 meeting was the second that the […]

Ultimately the U.S. must develop quantum communications to prevent its energy infrastructure from remaining vulnerable to cyberattacks, according to cybersecurity specialists. “The ability of hackers to infiltrate grid networks and corrupt these communications is real and growing,” Duncan Earl, president of Quibitekk, told lawmakers during an Oct. 26 U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee […]