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Obama Administration Proposes New Restrictions on RUS Financing

The Department of Agriculture announced a fiscal 2014 budget of $4 billion for the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Electric Loan Program.  Of that amount, $3 billion would be earmarked for renewable energy projects with the remaining $1 billion held for environmental upgrades.  The proposed budget provides no money for other distribution or transmission projects, a void that lawmakers...

Delaware Coop Announces Power Purchase from Landfill Gas Facility

Delaware Electric Cooperative recently signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Delaware Solid Waste Authority for 2 MW of power generated from a landfill in Sandtown.  The purchase is part of the coop’s long-term strategy of procuring a mix of energy sources at competitive prices.  Click here for the full story.

Colorado Seeks to Increase Coop Renewable Power Target

A Colorado state committee approved legislation this week that would require that 25 percent of Colorado’s electric coop electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.  Investor-owned utilities in the state — Xcel Energy Inc. and Black Hills Energy — must by state law generate 30 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.  Tri-State Generation and Transmission...

North Dakota Coop Sends Carbon Dioxide Packing

Basin Electric Power Cooperative recently shipped a milestone amount of carbon dioxide to Canadian oil fields for use in forcing oil to the surface.  The coop’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant has been capturing carbon dioxide since 2000 and just sent the 25 millionth metric ton to southern Saskatchewan.  Click here for more information.

Delaware Coop Breaks Ground on New Solar Farm

The Delaware Electric Cooperative (Delaware Electric) has begun construction of a 20-acre, 16,000-solar-panel, solar energy farm in Sussex County, Delaware.  It will be one of the largest solar farms in the state and is expected to cost $14 million.  Delaware Electric hopes the project will be online by May 2013.  Read more here.

Federal Court Rejects Rehearing on EPA Cross-State Air Pollution Rule

Last Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a two-sentence order in which it declined to reopen a decision that struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) sweeping Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.  The decision striking down the rule was issued last August by a three-judge panel of the circuit court after the National Rural Electric...

NRECA Speaks Out Against EPA Turbine Plan

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) is urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to back off on its proposed revisions to New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for stationary gas turbines and stationary combustion turbines.  According to the NRECA, the revisions are flawed because the revised standards would be made retroactive to February 2005 and...

Hawaii Regulators Approve Kaua’i Island Solar Power Purchase Agreement

The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission has approved a 20-year power purchase agreement between the Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative and REC Solar for its 300-kilowatt, MP2 Hawaii Solar Project in Koloa.  This will be the 36th-largest renewable energy project in Hawaii.  Read more here.

Utah Coop May Challenge California Greenhouse Gas Trading System

Utah-based Deseret Power Electric Cooperative (Deseret) may file a lawsuit challenging California’s greenhouse gas trading system.  Although the coop has declined to comment on the potential lawsuit, “one informed source” asserts that Deseret may be seeking other businesses to join in  this effort.  The lawsuit would likely claim that the trading system violates either the...

Federal Judge Clears the Way for Alaskan Coal Plant

A federal judge has approved an agreement among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state of Alaska and an Alaskan power company that will allow a coal plant to reopen by 2015.  Under the agreement, Golden Valley Electric Association agreed to install the most rigorous emission controls available on coal-fired electric generating units at the Healy Clean Coal Plant at an...

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