To predict the Clinton Administration's next step is foolhardy. And when it comes to the first federal restructuring bill, it's riskier still to rely on drafts that apparently were leaked to gauge reactions of the energy industry and media.
"There have been a gazillion versions of the bill which have been prepared," says a Department of Energy official.
According to Standard & Poor's (S&P), the recently reauthorized federal Safe Drinking Water Act should have a favorable, long-term credit impact on investor-owned water utilities.
The new act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to give states the flexibility to modify testing and monitoring requirements based on a local water system's actual health-risk exposure. The act will also form a state revolving fund program, which will assist small water systems in complying with regulations and in conducting other drinking water projects.
With President Clinton and the Department of Energy (DOE) staunchly opposed, the House of Representatives was expected to return September 4 from August recess to take up its version of a nuclear waste disposal bill that passed in the Senate on July 31 by a vote of 63-37.
Senate bill 1936 and its amendments call for a temporary storage facility at the Nevada nuclear test site near Yucca Mountain before the end of 1999.
Schaefer measure wins praise from UtiliCorp, Enron, and others, but EEI wants relief on stranded costs."The Electricity Consumers Power to Choose Act," introduced by Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO), while designed to bring competition to the electric industry, has definitely attracted controversy. The bill has evoked strong reactions from industry players as well as intense lobbying efforts on the part of promoters and detractors. Everyone, it seems, wants to put in their two cents as the bill makes its way across Capitol Hill.
Thermal Energy Storage: Putting
Green Solutions
on SiteBy John E. Flory, Loren W. McCannon, Stan Tory,
Donald L. Geistert, and James PattersonA recent study coordinated by the California Energy Commission shows how stored-cooling applications provide both environmental and competitive benefits in a summer-peaking market.As California prepares for a more competitive electric future, the California Energy Commission (CEC) is taking another look at some key customer technologies.
On May 13, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol M. Browner referred the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) open-access rule, Order 888, to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). In effect, Browner has asked the Clinton Administration to intervene in the restructuring process.
Browner feels that under certain circumstances the open-access rule could lead to future increases in air pollution. She believes these impacts can be minimized through a combination of actions by EPA and states under the Clean Air Act (CAA).
Since the federal Court of Appeals decision in the Calvert Cliffs case over 25 years ago, no power plant may be built without a thorough socioeconomic impact statement. Yet, schemes to alter the entire supply system of a state - or even the nation - are currently proposed with only cursory attention to socioeconomic consequences.
One of my first assignments when I was a reporter for this magazine was a story on the flap over the Environmental Protection Agency's 1990 draft report on electromagnetic fields (EMF).
Suppose you want to reduce emissions
of carbon dioxide to lessen the chance
of global warming. Should you (a) prohibit coal burning in electric power plants, (b) encourage coal use for power generation, or (c) force electric generators to pay an "externality" surcharge to reflect the cost of CO2 emissions?Here's another one. You are an independent power producer.
This country's 350,000 manufacturers must add cutting-edge technologies to their processes to stay competitive. Yet most are small- to medium-sized companies leery of investing in new technology without first
confirming its effect on their
products.Some utilities previously had no option but to run local technology-demonstration facilities on their own (see sidebar on p.