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November 5, 2024

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Rulemaking Underway for Washington Climate Laws

Washington officials have begun the nuts-and-bolts rulemaking on three major climate change bills the state’s legislature passed in April.

The three new laws include the nation’s second cap-and-trade bill, a low-carbon fuel standard bill and a bill to cut refrigerant greenhouse gases.

State agency officials briefed the Senate’s Environment, Energy and Technology Committee Tuesday on the rulemaking schedules for those new laws.

The new cap-and-invest law (SB 5126) goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2023. Washington has joined California as the nation’s only states with comprehensive cap-and-trade programs. (See Wash. Becomes 2nd State to Adopt Cap-and-trade.) California participates in the Western Climate Initiative cap-and-trade pact with Quebec.

SB 5126 calls for state officials to engage in brainstorming efforts to create a system to set an annual cap on total industrial carbon emissions, a cap that slowly decreases through the years. Large emitters would submit quarterly bids to the state in an auction for greenhouse gas emissions allowances. Companies would be allowed to buy, sell and trade those allowances.

On Tuesday, officials said the greenhouse gas standards have been recently proposed internally at the state’s Department of Ecology, which will manage the program.  The agency is expected to review and adopt those standards by February 2022.

Ecology officials are expected to propose a basic framework for the cap-and-invest program next spring, with final regulations to be reviewed and adopted by October 2022.

Specific regulations to safeguard industries with significant foreign competition are expected to be proposed internally in December, with that proposal to be reviewed and adopted by July 2022.

LCFS, Refrigerants Rules

The legislature last spring also passed a low-carbon fuel standard bill, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2023. (See LCFS Bill Passes Washington Legislature.)

The bill requires that carbon emissions from gasoline and diesel fuel sold in Washington be cut by 10% below 2017 levels by 2028 and by 20% by 2035. It excludes emissions from fuel that is exported out of state or used by water vessels and railroad locomotives.

Under the program, biofuels would likely be blended with petroleum-based fuels. State officials say vehicle emissions account for 45% of Washington’s carbon pollution.

On Tuesday, state officials told the committee that informal public comments are being accepted, with listening sessions set for Jan. 27 and Feb 23, 2022. The Ecology Department will line up an internal proposal on protective regulations by summer 2022 with regulations formally adopted by winter 2022.

Also on Tuesday, the Senate committee learned that the Ecology Department will accept public input through February 2023 on rules covering hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions from air conditioners and large refrigeration units.

HB 1050 calls for reducing the climate impact of refrigerants used in air conditioners by roughly 70% and in commercial refrigeration systems by about 90%. HFCs account for roughly 4% — or 4 million tons — of Washington’s GHG emissions. The bill is modeled on regulations recently approved by the California Air Resources Board.

The bill enables the state government to set the maximum global warming potential (GWP) measurements for the gases within all sizes of refrigeration units. It would also require grocery stores, ice rinks and other owners of large refrigeration units to periodically check for HFC leaks. Maximum GWP is a measure of an HFC’s ability to retain heat in the atmosphere compared to a similar volume of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period.

The bill establishes an upper GWP limit of 750 for new air conditioning and refrigeration equipment. That standard goes into effect for room air conditioners and dehumidifiers in 2023, and for air conditioning systems with variable refrigerant flows or volumes on Jan. 1, 2026. For other types of refrigeration equipment, the new standards go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.

Environmental Justice Update

As part of the cap-and-invest bill, Washington is also appointing an environmental justice panel to ensure that low-income neighborhoods and communities of color will not be disproportionally burdened with excess pollution. The bill anticipates the auctions would raise several hundred million dollars that the state can allocate to those areas.

Sierra Rotakhina, the new manager of the Environmental Justice Council, outlined what is happening with the proposed 16-person body. Members will represent communities, tribes, environmental justice or academic constituencies, business and labor.

The governor’s office on boards and commissions is vetting applicants to the council, with Rotakhina expecting the body to be running by January.

Several state agencies are expected to develop plans to obtain public feedback on environmental justice issues to present to the council in 2022.  In 2023, the council will work on how state agencies should deal with environmental justice matters and map out funding needs.

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Pacific NW Leaders Sign High-speed Rail MOU

The leaders of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday to push for development of an ultra-high-speed train line from Portland to Vancouver, B.C.

The rail line under consideration would support a train going 250 mph for 310-320 miles between Vancouver and Portland, depending on location of the end stations. Seattle would be the primary midway stop. Train systems capable of going 250 mph exist in China, Japan, Spain and France.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and British Columbia Premier John Horgan signed the MOU at the annual Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference, a gathering to discuss the common economic issues among the two U.S. states and one Canadian province.

“We will coordinate with our partners on pursuing federal funding for a high-speed rail and engage communities throughout our region,” Inslee said in a press release. The press release noted Congress is working on a high-speed rail funding program.

This concept of a high-speed Seattle-to-Vancouver rail has been on the drawing board for at least 20 years but has remained dormant. Inslee has pushed the concept as a way to cut back on pollution from vehicles traveling Interstate 5 from Vancouver to Portland. I-5 is routinely plagued with traffic jams from 20 miles north to 35 miles south of Seattle

“A two-track high-speed guideway can reliably support 6-8 trains per hour in each direction,” according to a report presented to the 2016 Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference by engineering services firm WSP. “This would mean a train connecting Seattle and Vancouver every 10-15 minutes, with some operating as non-stop express and others stopping at Everett and Bellingham.”

In 2016, WSP estimated that an ultra-high-speed rail line from Seattle to Vancouver would cost $125 million to $1 billion per mile depending on the terrain and other factors. So far, none of the three governments have provided a cost estimate for a 310-mile project.

On Tuesday, Inslee pointed to a 2018 Washington Department of Transportation study of the concept that concluded the rail line could create $355  billion in economic growth while cutting back on greenhouse gases and allowing people to live in affordable housing away from larger, more expensive cities.

That same study also said the land for such a line needs to be analyzed, the technology needs to be studied, and finances and funding need to be worked out. Also, a governing body for such a venture must be created.

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Fusion Company Gets $500M Investment

Private investors have poured an additional $500 million into a Seattle-area company that believes the fusion reactor it’s developing can achieve net electricity generation by 2024.

Currently, fusion reactors use more energy than they produce. “Net electricity generation” is the Holy Grail of fusion — a reactor producing more electricity than it takes in.

Redmond, Wash.-based Helion Energy is one of at least 10 ventures worldwide that are trying to develop a commercially viable fusion reactor to produce electricity. In July, Helion Energy broke ground in nearby Everett on a 154,000 square-foot research and manufacturing facility to be completed in early 2022. (See Wash. Company Scales up Fusion Energy Efforts.)

A year ago, Helion’s prototype reactor produced a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for a fraction of a second, a threshold scientists believe is needed for practical fusion power. While government and academic fusion ventures have hit that benchmark, Helion is the first private operation to do so.

Many fusion reactor projects call for a steady maintenance of the 100-million-degree Celsius threshold. Helion’s approach works somewhat like pistons in an engine — producing 100-million-degree temperatures in pulses. Helion’s sixth-generation reactor can produce a nanosecond pulse once every 10 minutes. The company is aiming to produce a nanosecond pulse every second.

Helion was founded by CEO David Kirtley, CTO Chris Pihl and Principal Scientist George Votroubek. Last year, the company picked up $40 million in funding. Its main investors include billionaire Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook; Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn; the U.S. Department of Energy; Capricorn Investment Group; and Mithril Capital Management.

The latest $500 million round of financing comes from existing investors, including Sam Altman, CEO of the artificial intelligence research firm OpenAI, Moskovitz, Mithril and Capricorn.

“The $500 million already raised fully funds Helion to reach the 2024 target on achieving net electricity from Polaris [the name of the seventh-generation fusion reactor to be developed],” Helion spokesman Isaac Steinmetz told NetZero Insider in an email.

In a recent blog post, Altman wrote: “With a tiny fraction of the money spent on other fusion efforts but the culture of a startup, [Helion] and their team have built a generator that produces electricity. Helion has a clear path to net electricity by 2024 and has a long-term goal of delivering electricity for 1 cent per kilowatt-hour.  If this all works as we hope, we may have a path out of the climate crisis.”

If Helion hits that 2024 target, its investors will provide an additional $1.7 billion.

Getting the Pulse Right

Helion, General Fusion and Tri-Alpha Energy (now TAE Technologies) all said years ago that they would have practical fusion by 2019 or 2020, and none have hit those targets.

In his email, Steinmetz wrote that it normally takes two to three years to upgrade a fusion reactor prototype from one generation to the next. The sixth-generation prototype can produce the commercially relevant fusion conditions.

“With Polaris, it’s a matter of engineering to scale the pulsed, non-ignition method for this proven fusion capability up to the [one nanosecond pulse per second] frequency that creates net electricity generation,” Steinmetz said.

“There will always be unanticipated technical challenges and risks that come up in our pursuit of net electricity by 2024,” Steinmetz said. “The biggest challenge our team faces now is increasing our pulse rep rate from one pulse every 10 minutes, to one pulse per second. However, we’re confident that we have the groundwork in place from all past iterations of Helion’s fusion generator to hit our target.”

A fusion reactor ideally will be smaller, cheaper and safer than the huge fission power reactors that currently dot the world, but so far no one has been able to create nuclear fusion outside of a hydrogen bomb, in which nuclear fission sparks the explosion that leads to fusion. Nuclear fusion occurs naturally in our sun and the stars.

Fusion slams together the cores of two atoms to create the core of one new atom. In today’s fusion efforts, the cores of two hydrogen atoms are crunched to create a new helium atom, with the resulting energy being eyed to create electricity. The hydrogen atoms are actually deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen that includes a neutron.

Fusion is supposed to be dramatically cheaper than fission reactors because of the relatively small amount of deuterium needed as opposed to the processed uranium fuel used for fission. Water is cheaper compared with uranium, and the waste disposal problem is tiny compared with trying to find places to put used nuclear waste and spent fuel rods.

Fusion has existed on the drawing board since the 1920s, but it has been missing the right temperatures, the right atomic cores, the right slamming speeds, the right conditions of the plasmas to envelope the colliding atom cores, the right oscillating magnetic fields enclosing the reaction, the right balance of these forces, and other necessary factors.

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CEC Allocates $1.4B to ZEV Programs

The California Energy Commission approved spending plans Monday that include $1.4 billion for electric- and hydrogen-powered vehicles over the next three years and $750 million to fund innovations in clean-energy projects through 2025.

The CEC’s 2021-2023 Investment Plan Update to its Clean Transportation Program increases zero-emission vehicle funding six-fold compared with last year’s update. Most of the increase came from this year’s state budget, which put $3.9 billion toward ZEVs to help achieve the state’s goal of decarbonizing its transportation sector during the next two decades. (See Calif. Earmarks $3.9B for ZEVs Through 2024.)

“This plan charts the path for [Gov. Gavin Newsom’s] historic budget investments in zero-emission transportation infrastructure and manufacturing,” Commissioner Patricia Monahan said in a statement. “These dollars close the 2025 infrastructure funding gap so that access to charging and hydrogen fueling isn’t a barrier for those exploring cleaner transportation options including individuals, businesses and public agencies.”

Newsom in September 2020 ordered that all new passenger vehicles sold in the state must be ZEVs by 2035. A 2018 order by former Gov. Jerry Brown set a target of putting 5 million ZEVs on the road by 2030. But the state needs a vast expansion of charging and fueling infrastructure to reach those goals. (See Can California Meet Its EV Mandates?)

Newsom took advantage of a large budget surplus this year to turbocharge the effort.

About 80% of the funding allocated by the CEC will go to EV charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure, including $690 million for medium- and heavy-duty infrastructure and $314 million for light-duty.

The California Air Resources Board is scheduled to consider an additional $1.5 billion in funding Friday, an amount also allocated by the fiscal year 2021-22 state budget. If approved by CARB, the money would fund consumer vehicle rebates and  heavy-duty equipment investments.

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that President Biden signed Monday devotes $7.5 billion to EVs; California expects to receive $384 million over five years to expand charging networks. The state can also apply for some of the $2.5 billion in grant funding dedicated to EV charging in the bill, the White House said.

EPIC Funding

In a separate decision, the CEC approved its Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) spending plan for the next four years.

The commission allocated $150 million per year from 2021 to 2025, totaling $750 million, to fund cutting-edge research and entrepreneurial projects related to clean energy and climate change.

EPIC funding will focus on floating offshore wind turbines, grid reliability during the state’s transition to 100% clean resources by 2045, and short- and long-term energy storage. Using EVs as distributed energy resources and enhancing building decarbonization through electric space and water heating also are priorities.

“This is phenomenal,” CEC Chairman David Hochschild said following the staff presentation. “Just looking at this list, I just feel each and every item address all the key challenges. It feels comprehensive. It feels on point and timely. I’m just incredibly proud of the team.”

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Negotiations Stall in GlobalFoundries’ Bid for Vt. Utility Status

Parties to semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries’ case seeking utility status in Vermont have been unable to reach an understanding on what the company’s emissions-related responsibilities should be.

Regulators granted an extension in the case in October to give the Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS), Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) and GlobalFoundries more time to reach an agreement on a greenhouse gas reduction plan. But the company said in filing on Friday that while the parties have “engaged in productive discussions,” they have not reached an agreement and discussions will continue.

GlobalFoundries filed a petition in March asking the Vermont Public Utility Commission to grant it “self-managed utility” (SMU) status (21-1107-PET) and allow it to purchase electricity in the ISO-NE market instead of from Green Mountain Power.

At issue in the case is whether as an SMU, GlobalFoundries would be subject to Vermont’s renewable energy standard, a cornerstone of the state’s plan to reduce emissions under the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act. GlobalFoundries has a facility in Essex and is responsible for 8% of the state’s electricity load. In its petition, the company said it should be exempt from RES compliance because it does not intend to distribute electricity.

Environmental advocates are adamant that the company’s sizeable load requires that it be held accountable to Vermont’s clean energy and pollution reduction requirements. The GWSA stood up the state’s first climate council, which is currently compiling a climate action plan for adoption Dec. 1. As part of the plan, the council is considering increasing the state’s RES from 75% by 2032 to 100% in a year to be determined.

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group filed a petition on Nov. 8 that 760 residents signed asking the state to reject GlobalFoundries’ request to be exempt from the law.

“If Vermont accedes to GlobalFoundries wishes, it would be putting energy policy authority for 8% of Vermont’s electricity usage — more than the amount used by the city of Burlington — in the hands of a multibillion-dollar, multinational corporation,” Ben Edgerly Walsh, VPIRG climate and energy program director, said in a letter accompanying the petition.

GlobalFoundries, DPS and ANR agreed to a tentative GHG reduction plan in September, with the potential to reach a definitive memorandum of understanding by the end of October. That plan includes efficiency and GHG reduction obligations for GlobalFoundries that would start in January and a 26% reduction target for 2025 in line with the GWSA. The plan does not define any way to comply with the state’s RES.

In granting an extension in the case, regulators asked parties to submit an MOU by Monday, but that did not happen. Should the parties agree on a final GHG framework, GlobalFoundries said, “they may ask the commission’s leave to submit a proposal at a later date.”

Motion to Dismiss

GlobalFoundries’ request for SMU status is unprecedented and has no basis in state law, and regulators have requested comments on whether the PUC has jurisdiction to grant it.

Vermont-based solar tracker manufacturer AllEarth Renewables filed a motion on Nov. 8 asking the PUC to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. GlobalFoundries meanwhile determined that the PUC does have jurisdiction after looking “long and carefully” at the question, according to a Nov. 8 company brief.

The SMU concept is appropriate for public and legislative debate, AllEarth said, but it is “well beyond” commission authority.

“Vermont electric utility franchising and regulation has long been built upon a structure of vertically integrated electric utilities subject to comprehensive rate regulation … and the legislature has not enacted laws that confer the ‘retail electricity choice’ that comprises a large part of what GlobalFoundries seeks,” AllEarth said.

But GlobalFoundries said that a finding that the PUC does not have jurisdiction would prevent it from protecting Vermonters from the negative consequences of such a large user exiting the state’s retail electricity market.

The company claimed that it would be allowed to pursue an alternative to regulated service “without any oversight to ensure that the proposed plan, as a whole, will promote the general good of the state and be consistent with the state’s energy policy goals.”

That scenario, the company said, “would be a unique omission in the fabric of the commission’s jurisdiction.”

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Senate Confirms FERC Nominee Willie Phillips

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted unanimously to confirm D.C. Public Service Commission Chair Willie Phillips’ nomination to FERC, securing the Democrats a majority on the commission for the first time in more than four years.

Phillips has served on the D.C. PSC since 2014 and was appointed chair in 2018 by Mayor Muriel Bowser. President Biden selected Phillips to fill the open FERC seat previously held by Republican Neil Chatterjee, who left the agency at the end of August after his term expired in June. (See Biden to Nominate Phillips to FERC.)

FERC Chair Richard Glick offered his “sincere congratulations” to Phillips and expressed appreciation that his appointment fills the last open seat on a commission that has struggled to plug vacancies in recent years.

“As I’ve said, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission functions best when it has a full complement of Commissioners,” Glick said in statement. “I very much look forward to welcoming Mr. Phillips to the commission and working with him soon.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, noted that Phillips’ appointment has earned broad support across the political spectrum in Washington.

“I congratulate Willie Phillips on his confirmation to serve on the FERC,” Manchin said. “He understands the need to balance affordability and reliability and will bring that outlook to the commission. And his unanimous confirmation, at a time when the Senate is uniquely divided, is evidence that he is supremely qualified and the right person to fully seat FERC.”

The newest commissioner has also found favor from the power sector. 

“Commissioner Phillips brings valuable experience to FERC and is exceptionally qualified to serve in this role. I commend him for his continued dedication to public service and look forward to working with him,” Edison Electric Institute President Tom Kuhn said in a statement.

“I have known and worked with Commissioner Phillips for several years. He is an exceptional leader who will bring a wealth of experience to the commission, which today may be busier than it ever has been before,” said EEI Executive Vice President Phil Moeller, a former FERC commissioner.

And while Phillips’ nomination had met with a cool reception from environmental groups, who have questioned his ties to the utilities he will be regulating, a key renewable energy organization offered praise for him.

“Mr. Phillips is highly qualified, with a deep legal understanding of the issues at stake and a demonstrated record of championing the benefits of renewable energy in our nation’s communities,” American Council on Renewable Energy CEO Gregory Wetstone said. “This is a critical moment for our energy transition, and we’re pleased to see that FERC will finally be operating at full capacity to address the transmission and power market reforms necessary to unlock America’s growing renewable energy economy.”

Phillips’ term will end on June 30, 2026.

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Bankruptcy Court OKs Legal Fees of $65 Million in FES Case

A federal bankruptcy judge in Ohio on Tuesday approved of legal fees of more than $65 million and expenses totaling $2.7 million in the FirstEnergy Solutions bankruptcy case. The decision officially closes the case.

FES, a wholly owned generation subsidiary of FirstEnergy, emerged from bankruptcy as Energy Harbor in February 2020 after 23 months of litigation. It was represented by the international law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, headquartered in D.C.

Akin Gump’s fees included about $2.8 million for lobbying work four members of the firm’s Public Law and Policy Group did to persuade Ohio lawmakers to approve H.B. 6 in June 2019. The legislation created a $1.1 billion public bailout of two FES nuclear reactors in northern Ohio. The firm’s lobbyists also worked closely with FES and FirstEnergy to defeat a referendum petition drive following the bill’s passage.

The court delayed approval of Akin Gump’s final fees and expenses invoice after learning of the existence of the lobbyists on the ground in Ohio and of the decision by FES to contribute $500,000 to Generation Now, a dark money group at the heart of the lobbying effort.

The court also took notice of the indictment of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R) and four associates on federal racketeering charges in July 2020, and the dismissal of FirstEnergy’s former chief executive and four others in October 2020 over the company’s contribution of $61 million in dark money to bankroll Householder’s multiyear campaign engineering passage of H.B. 6.

Judge Alan Koschik had delayed his decision for more than a year in the hope that federal prosecutors would let the court know, either in a docket filing or an appearance in court, whether his decision to authorize the final payments, officially closing the bankruptcy proceeding, would conflict with their investigation. He said Tuesday that the Justice Department, nor state authorities, never responded.

Two of the four Householder associates charged with racketeering have pleaded guilty but have not been sentenced. One killed himself in March, while a fourth along with Householder have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. FirstEnergy has paid a $230 million fine in a deferred prosecution agreement.

Koschik last year ordered the four Akin Gump lobbyists to file affidavits explaining their work, but the firm repeatedly asked for delays until a hearing last month to avoid having to file the affidavits in the public docket and arrange for a court appearance of the four because of the ongoing federal investigation.

“The question before the court is what to do about the request for final approval of Akin Gump’s fees generally, and in particular, its fees for the Government Affairs [division] … [for] the approximate amount of $2.8 million, in light of the federal criminal investigation and indictments concerning alleged corruption and racketeering involving Ohio politicians and political operatives in connection with the passage of Ohio House Bill 6,” Koschik said Tuesday before announcing his ruling.

“This court observes that despite holding at least four substantive hearing on the application, and two more where the court granted motions to adjourn, very few substantive objections have been filed or raised in court. The court has done all it can to provide breathing space for persons to oppose or question some portion of the Akin Gump fees in light of the criminal investigations.”

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FERC, NERC Release Final Texas Storm Report

FERC and NERC’s final report on February’s winter storms in Texas and the South Central U.S., issued on Tuesday, is a “sobering analysis that highlights the significant work that needs to be done” to prepare the electric grid for future cold weather events, according to FERC Chairman Richard Glick.

Incremental-unplanned-generating-unit-outages-(FERC)-Content.jpgIncremental unplanned generating unit outages, derates, and failures to start for the total event area, by cause, fuel type, and MW of nameplate capacity | FERC

The report, released nine months to the day after the commission announced it in the middle of the 12-day crisis, detailed how the severe cold impacted bulk electric system reliability, leading to widespread generation outages, derates or failures to start and forcing more than 23,000 MW of manual firm load shed. (See “FERC, NERC Announce Joint Inquiry,” Slow Storm Restoration Sparks Anger in Texas, South.) Residents of several cities were ordered to boil drinking and cooking water because of lack of power for water treatment plants, and multiple deaths occurred from hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning and heating fires that grew out of control.

ERCOT, in whose territory the crisis was most severe, has not yet provided a response to the report. In an email to RTO Insider, SPP said it is “currently evaluating” the joint report while also plugging its Improved Resource Availability Task Force, which is working to “address recommendations found in” the commission’s preliminary report. (See FERC, NERC Share Findings on February Winter Storm.)

The preliminary report, issued at the commission’s open meeting in September, highlighted the role of natural gas supply disruptions in the outages and listed recommendations for preventing another disaster. Tuesday’s report provided the same overall conclusions but with more detailed data and recommendations.

Gas Accounted for Most Outages

The report showed that all types of generation experienced failures in the cold weather event, but the greatest share of outages by far occurred among natural gas facilities. Both in terms of the number of units that experienced unplanned outages, derates and failures to start, and in their total nameplate capacity, gas units accounted for more than 50%. Next in both categories was wind, accounting for 27% of generating unit outages and 22% of total capacity. Coal came third, with 6% of generating units and 18% of capacity.

Location-and-fuel-type-of-unplanned-generation-outages-(FERC)-Content.jpgLocation and fuel type of unplanned generation outages and derates during the event (outaged capacity in MW) | FERC

Freezing issues caused 44% of the generating unit problems, which the report blamed on the facilities being unprepared for cold temperatures, wind and freezing precipitation. These conditions caused certain components and systems to freeze; for example, transmitters, sensing lines and instrumentation, valves and inlet air systems, and wind turbine blades. The report found many of the generator outages — 67% in ERCOT, 47% in SPP and 55% in MISO South — could have been avoided if these components had been properly prepared for the freezing weather.

Another major cause of generator outages was fuel issues, at 31%, of which natural gas alone accounted for 87%, with other fuels such as coal or fuel oil making up the rest. The issues with natural gas included drops in production and low pipeline pressure because of cold-related equipment failures, and the “terms and conditions of natural gas commodity and transportation contracts” that caused gas needed for electric generation to be prioritized for heating instead.

An additional 21% of generator outages were caused by mechanical and electrical issues. These were also from the cold, but they were not classed under “freezing issues” because the temperature did not reach freezing. The report’s authors once again laid the blame squarely at the feet of registered entities that failed to prepare their systems for the coming cold.

“Despite multiple prior recommendations by FERC and NERC, as well as annual reminders via regional entity workshops, that generating units take actions to prepare for the winter (and providing detailed suggestions for winterization), 49 generating units in SPP … 26 in ERCOT … and three units in MISO South still did not have any winterization plans,” the report said.

Report Urges Serious Cold Weather Prep

Recommendations provided in the report include significant changes to NERC’s reliability standards, requiring generator owners and/or operators to:

  • identify and protect cold weather-critical components;
  • build new or retrofit existing generating units to operate to specific ambient temperatures and weather based on extreme temperature and weather data, and account for effects of precipitation and wind;
  • perform annual training on winterization plans;
  • develop corrective action plans if freeze-related outages have been experienced in the past;
  • provide balancing authorities with the percentage of the total generating unit capacity that can be relied on during local forecasted cold weather; and
  • account for the effects of precipitation and wind when providing temperature data to balancing authorities.

NERC recently passed a set of cold weather standards, but that project began before February’s winter storm and was not intended to address any specific problems from that event. (See FERC Approves Cold Weather Standards.) The organization is attempting to initiate another cold weather standards project, but the Standards Committee last month decided to wait until the final report was issued before taking action. (See NERC Standards Committee Delays Action on Cold Weather SAR.)

Interdependency-of-electric-and-natural-gas-infrastructure-(DOE)-Content.jpgInterdependency of electric and natural gas infrastructure in Texas and the South Central U.S. | DOE

 

The report also recommended that generator owners be compensated for the costs of retrofitting their existing units, or designing new units, to withstand specified ambient temperatures, and that FERC, NERC and the REs host a joint technical conference to “discuss how to improve the winter readiness of generating units before [NERC’s] reliability standard revisions become effective” in 2023.

In addition, in light of the interdependencies between the gas and electric sectors and the vulnerabilities in this area exposed by the storm, the team urged Congress, state legislatures and regulatory agencies to require natural gas facilities to implement and maintain cold weather preparedness plans. It also recommended that the facilities themselves “undertake voluntary measures to prepare for cold weather” and that generator owners and operators “identify the reliability risks related to their natural gas fuel contracts.”

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Tennessee Grand Jury Seeks Federal Action on TVA Coal Ash Cleanup

A grand jury on Monday declined to return indictments over the Tennessee Valley Authority’s cleanup of the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill, saying allegations the utility exposed workers to harm should instead be investigated by federal authorities.

The Roane County (Tenn.) grand jury heard presentations from the District Attorney General’s (DAG) Office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and a former investigative reporter regarding allegations that dozens of cleanup workers were poisoned by exposure to coal ash after a dike at a TVA ash impoundment collapsed, sending a billion gallons of waste into the Clinch and Emory rivers.

The U.S. Coast Guard conducted the initial response to the spill, which covered 300 acres of farms and homes, along with local responders under the oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2009, EPA turned the site over to TVA, which hired Jacobs Engineering (NYSE:J) to oversee the cleanup under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

The-aftermath-of-the-Kingston-spill-(TVA)-Content.jpgThe aftermath of the Kingston spill. | TVA

TVA was found liable for the spill by a federal district court and had to compensate affected landowners. Cleanup costs have totaled about $1 billion.

Jamie Satterfield, a former reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel, asked the grand jury to indict four mid-level supervisors for TVA, Jacobs, and subcontractor Shaw Industries under a state law that allows citizens to present information to grand juries.

The grand jury released a statement saying only two of the 12 jurors supported a state indictment and that “the evidence [was] better suited for federal authorities to investigate and prosecute.”

“We found much of the evidence about TVA & Jacobs’ handling of the cleanup, relative to worker safety, very concerning,” they said.

Covered in Ash

Jacobs employees said they were covered in ash during the work and were not provided adequate safety equipment.

More than 900 workers were involved in the cleanup, 258 of whom sued Jacobs Engineering. More than 50 workers have since died. In 2018, a federal civil jury found Jacobs liable for failing to inform workers and protect them from the dangers of coal ash.

The jury found exposure to coal ash could cause illnesses, including heart disease, lung and skin cancer, leukemia and emphysema. But the damages phase of the suit was delayed following a January 2019 order that the parties engage in mediation, which failed to resolve the matter. Jacobs is now seeking a ruling from the Tennessee Supreme Court on its claim for “derivative governmental immunity,” according to TVA’s latest 10-K filing.

Cleanup-work-in-progress-(WBIR)-Content.jpgCleanup work in progress | WBIR

The TBI and DAG’s office began investigating the cleanup at the behest of a different Roane County grand jury in 2020. Among the allegations were alterations of air monitor results and other environmental tests and a failure to inform, protect and provide safety measures for cleanup workers.

In a statement, District Attorney General Russell Johnson said investigators couldn’t prove the ash exposure caused deaths without autopsies. He also cited the four-year statute of limitations on reckless homicide.

Johnson said that the cleanup was largely completed by 2014. “Therefore, anything that happened from December 2008 through December 2014 was now almost seven years old, making any state criminal charge problematic at best and, from a legal standpoint, impossible due to statutes of limitation.”

Johnson said the statement by the grand jury suggested “they were reluctant to hold four site supervisors criminally responsible for something that the grand jurors evidently perceived to possibly be ‘sins’ of the employers.”

“This is really a matter that the U.S. Attorney and the federal Office of Inspector General are better equipped to handle given that the initial cleanup from December 22, 2008 to May 2009 was conducted under the federal EPA, then from May 2009 to December 2014 the cleanup was conducted under a Presidential Order under CERCLA and EPA with TVA responsible for Jacobs Engineering as their selected contractor — all under federal jurisdiction.”

‘Best Available Science’

TVA said in a statement Tuesday that its cleanup plan “was created using the best available science on how to perform the work safely” in accordance with CERCLA.

“The state investigation has correctly concluded without any finding of wrongdoing,” Jacobs said Tuesday. “Jacobs stands by its work assisting TVA with the difficult job of cleaning up the Kingston coal ash spill.  Jacobs did not cause the spill or cause any workers to be injured, and the allegations were baseless.”

Shaw did not respond to a request for comment.

Uranium, Radium

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported in stories by Satterfield that the coal ash had three times more uranium than documented in public reports. Satterfield also reported that TVA has known since at least 1981 that its coal ash contained radium 226 at levels that could cause cancer but did not inform the public.

The newspaper also reported that Tennessee regulators issued a public report on sampling of the coal ash that deleted a reading for radium and reduced readings for uranium by 98%.

A-home-is-swallowed-by-the-flood-of-coal-ash-(TVA)-Content.jpgA home is swallowed by the flood of coal ash. | TVA

Satterfield was fired in August, ending a 27-year career at the paper, after she spoke at a public meeting in Anderson County, when she gave officials an emotional warning that TVA had used coal ash waste as infill in its construction of a playing field.

Coal fly ash, a byproduct of coal burning, is used in Portland cement and sheetrock.

In 2015, EPA finalized regulations on coal ash — also known as coal combustion residuals (CCR) — noting it contains mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which are associated with cancer and other ailments. The agency’s rule addresses the risks from leaks into groundwater, exposure to coal ash dust and the failure of surface impoundments such as Kingston.

But EPA has not classified it as a hazardous waste.

Satterfield, who said she shared evidence backing her allegations with the Office of Inspector General in September, called the grand jury’s action “not a win but not a loss.”

“This was as intentional an act as could be,” she told RTO Insider. “These workers … didn’t ask, ‘What am I running into?’ They said, ‘Where do you need us? There might be bodies under this stuff. Where do you need us?”

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PG&E Likely Violated Probation, Judge Finds

The federal judge overseeing the probation of Pacific Gas and Electric for convictions related to the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion in 2010 said the utility likely violated its probation by starting the Kincade Fire in 2019 and the Zogg Fire in 2020, which killed four people.

Judge William Alsup signed a petition on Nov. 10 submitted by a federal probation officer, who asked the judge for a summons for an “offender under supervision.” The officer cited charges by prosecutors in Sonoma and Shasta counties related to the Kincade and Zogg fires as evidence supporting the petition.

PG&E has not responded in court papers but said in a brief statement, “We’re aware of the court’s action and are currently reviewing.”

One of the conditions of PG&E’s probation is that it does not commit additional state or federal crimes.

Sonoma County prosecutors filed 33 criminal charges against PG&E on April 6 in connection with the Kincade Fire, a 78,000-acre blaze that injured six firefighters, destroyed 374 structures and led to mass evacuations. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) determined that a PG&E transmission line sparked the fire.

The complaint accused PG&E of committing five felonies and 28 misdemeanors, including “recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury” and a felony charge of emitting harmful airborne contaminants, injuring children. (See Prosecutors Charge PG&E for 2019 Kincade Fire.)

PG&E acknowledged its line started the fire but has contested the criminal charges.

In September, the Shasta County District Attorney’s office charged PG&E with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the Zogg Fire. The blaze killed an 8-year-old girl and her 46-year-old mother, as well as a 79-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man. It burned more than 56,388 acres and destroyed 204 structures.

Cal Fire concluded in March that the Zogg fire began on Sept. 27, 2020, when a leaning gray pine tree fell onto a PG&E power line near in rural Shasta County. (See PG&E Equipment Started Zogg Fire, Investigation Finds.)

PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said on Sept. 24 that the utility had accepted Cal Fire’s findings but denied criminal liability in the Zogg fire. “We did not commit a crime,” she said. The company is fighting the charges in court. (See PG&E Denies New Manslaughter Charges.)

Alsup, however, agreed with the federal probation officer that the charges for the Kincade and Zogg fires meant “there is probable cause to believe there has been a violation of the conditions of supervision” and said he would incorporate a charge of violating probation into future PG&E proceedings.

In such cases, federal law allows the court to extend a defendant’s probation, to add new terms, to revoke probation and resentence the defendant, or to do nothing. In prior instances when PG&E violated probation, Alsup has added new conditions related to vegetation management and equipment inspections, among other requirements, but has relented on more severe punishments.

PG&E’s five-year probation ends in January, and Alsup has vowed to do what he can to transform the utility’s safety culture before he loses authority.

Disasters caused by the utility’s equipment have killed at least 108 people since 2010, including 84 residents of Paradise, Calif., in the 2018 Camp Fire. The utility pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in that case.