FLORIDA
Duke Energy Cuts Rate Hike Request, Won’t Shut off Power at 95 Degrees
Duke Energy has agreed to a settlement with the Public Service Commission to drastically decrease its rate increase request.
Originally, Duke asked for an increase of about $820 million over the next three years. Now, the company is requesting an increase of $262 million, plus charges for solar plants that only will be added once the projects are completed. The costs of those projects would total $141 million if all are finished on schedule, the company said.
Duke also agreed to add language to its policy so that no customers will have their power disconnected if temperatures reach at least 95 degrees. Previously, it stopped shutoffs when the heat index was 105 degrees.
More: Tampa Bay Times
MICHIGAN
Ann Arbor Ballot Proposal Promises Affordable Access to Renewable Energy
Ann Arbor residents will vote this November on establishing an optional public utility that would use renewable energy exclusively. The project is part of the city’s A2Zero program, which aims for carbon neutrality by 2030.
A report calculated cost savings based on how much money it will cost the city to set up the utility and how many customers participate. The report said residents could save on their electricity bills by opting in to the utility.
Unlike a full-scale public utility, the sustainable utility would be supplemental, as residents and businesses would need to opt in to use it.
More: Michigan Public Radio
MINNESOTA
PUC Approves CenterPoint’s Clean Energy Plan
The Public Utilities Commission has approved CenterPoint Energy’s $106 million clean energy plan. CenterPoint said the five-year program will cost its average residential customer about $1.50 a month. The plan will include clean energy pilot projects such as renewable natural gas and geothermal heating.
The largest of CenterPoint’s 17 pilot projects calls for $40 million in purchases of renewable natural gas. After RNG purchases, CenterPoint’s next largest proposal, costing $13.6 million, is retrofitting residences for electric heat pumps with gas backups.
More: Star Tribune
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Law Provides New Solar Incentives for Cities
A recently signed law has made significant changes to the state’s Renewable Energy Fund, directing money to help towns and cities develop municipal solar projects.
The fund, created in 2007, is a pool of money the state uses to support renewable and thermal energy initiatives through grants and rebates. More recently, revenue has hovered around $7 million. The money then is allocated across several programs. The new legislation calls for funding to be allocated to a new municipal solar program in 2024, with the sum likely to be announced in late August or early September.
The bill also terminated the state’s rebate program for residential solar and wind installations.
More: Energy News Network
NORTH CAROLINA
Police: Man Shoots Utility Tree Workers
A man shot three tree workers while they were clearing trees for a power company before being shot himself by police officers during his arrest, police said.
The incident began near Murphytown when 36-year-old Lucas Wilson Murphy confronted contract workers clearing the right of way for a utility, according to a statement from the Yancey County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities did not release any possible motives in the case.
All three workers sustained serious injuries. Their conditions are unknown.
More: ABC News
TEXAS
CPS Energy Plan to Shut Braunig Units Could be Stopped by ERCOT
ERCOT will begin seeking replacement power for the gas-fired units at CPS Energy’s Braunig Power Station, which the company planned to shut down by March, and failure to do so could halt the utility’s plans.
The plan proposed by CPS, which is working to transition away from carbon generation, would take 859 MW off the grid. However, it’s unclear where the replacement power could come from. To offset the Braunig loss, CPS recently bought existing gas-powered plants from Talen Energy. But because those plants already were part of ERCOT’s capacity before the purchase, Braunig’s closing would still result in a net loss on the grid.
ERCOT is scheduled to decide by October.
More: Houston Chronicle
VERMONT
Conservation Law Foundation to Sue State over Alleged Failure to Comply with Climate Law
The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has announced plans to sue the state, alleging the Agency of Natural Resources has failed to comply with a law that requires Vermont to reduce climate emissions.
In 2020, Vermont enacted the Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the state to implement programs that cut greenhouse emissions in specific amounts by 2025, 2030 and 2050. The CLF plans to use a pathway included in the law that allows organizations or individuals to sue the secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources to force compliance if evidence shows the state is not on track to meet those benchmarks. Under the law, the entity suing the state must give the agency 60 days’ notice before filing a lawsuit.
The CLF alleges the agency has used faulty modeling to assert the state is on track to meet the law’s first deadline on Jan. 1, 2025. The CLF conducted its own analysis and said the analysis showed the state is not likely to meet the deadline.
More: VTDigger
VIRGINIA
DEQ Fines Mountain Valley Pipeline for Environmental Violations
The Department of Environmental Quality has fined Mountain Valley Pipeline $30,500 for violating environmental regulations during a three-month period before the pipeline began operating, marking the fourth consecutive fine of this type.
The DEQ levied the penalty after it found nearly two dozen violations of erosion and sediment control rules, according to a report. Nearly all problems were corrected within a day.
Before the latest penalty, the DEQ had fined Mountain Valley $68,000 over the previous three quarters since construction resumed last summer.
More: Cardinal News
Dominion Customers’ Bills to Rise for Offshore Project Costs
The State Corporation Commission has approved an 80% increase in the surcharge on Dominion Energy bills that finances an offshore wind project off Virginia Beach. The increase, which goes into effect Sept. 1, will raise the average monthly bill by $3.89. Dominion plans to erect 176 giant wind turbines in the Atlantic and expects to have the project operational by the end of 2026.
More: Richmond Times-Dispatch
WASHINGTON
Initiative to Halt Phaseout of Natural Gas Makes Ballot
State election officials have certified an initiative for the November ballot that seeks to reverse the state’s attempt to phase out natural gas use in homes and other buildings.
The measure targets the state’s combination of regulations and laws to move swiftly away from natural gas toward technology like electric heat pumps. It will appear first on ballots, followed by three other citizen initiatives that seek to repeal the state’s cap-and-trade system and capital gains tax and make the state’s new long-term care services program voluntary.
If passed, the initiative would repeal provisions of a new law meant to hasten Puget Sound Energy’s transition away from natural gas. It also would bar cities and counties from prohibiting, penalizing or discouraging “the use of gas for any form of heating, or for uses related to any appliance or equipment, in any building.” And it would roll back recent changes to energy requirements in building codes that are designed to get more electric heat pumps installed in newly built buildings.
More: Washington State Standard