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CUOMO WINS AND CLIMATE ACTIVISTS LOSE: Gov. Andrew Cuomo won the gubernatorial primary Thursday night to become the Democratic nominee to lead the Empire State, beating activist darling Cynthia Nixon.

Cynthia Nixon was endorsed by the anti-fossil fuel group 350.org, who opposed Cuomo as the wrong candidate for climate change.

Nevertheless, the group said the primary race helped push Cuomo to endorse stances that benefit the climate movement’s policy leanings.

“Despite Nixon’s defeat, we in the climate movement have made our voices heard, pushing Cuomo to take stances on real climate solutions during the campaign: from opposing offshore drilling and calling for fossil fuel divestment, to temporarily denying the air permit to the dirty CPV fracked gas power plant,” said 350 Action Executive Director May Boeve in a statement.

Invoking a hurricane: “As intensifying hurricanes threaten our communities, New Yorkers need a real climate leader who will put our health and safety before corporate interests,” Boeve said.

UTILITIES’ COURT DEFEAT IN ILLINOIS COULD BODE WELL FOR CUOMO IN NEW YORK: An industry defeat in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals may be a good sign for Cuomo’s policy to subsidize economically-ailing nuclear power plants in the Empire State.

Illinois, the home of the largest nuclear utility Exelon, got a welcomed victory for its Zero Emission Credit program in the Seventh Circuit on Thursday. The state’s program is similar to one Cuomo spearheaded in New York.

The preemption argument flounders: The merchant utility group Electric Power Supply Association had challenged Illinois for overstepping the state’s authority with the credits. It argued that the state went outside the boundaries dividing state and federal authority under the the Federal Power Act. However, the court did not agree.  

This could be a good sign that Cuomo’s program will also survive judicial scrutiny in a similar case pending before the Second Circuit Court.  

The merchant utility group took the ruling in stride: “Today’s decision confirms that state subsidy programs such as nuclear bailout ZECs can harm wholesale markets,” as statement from the group read. “FERC told the 7th Circuit the commission can mitigate these negative effects and today’s opinion relies on that representation.”

They will now look to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take action against the subsidy programs as the commission looks to approve a recent order by the grid operator PJM, in which the subsidies are included.   

“In essence the court agreed that the ball is in FERC’s court to address the effects which FERC found just a few months ago in the PJM capacity docket before FERC are in fact hurting wholesale power markets,” Nancy Bagot, spokeswoman for the utility group, told John.

On the Trump front: Coincidentally, President Trump is also looking to develop a plan to subsidize coal and nuclear power plants, which Bagot’s group is also pushing back against alongside a broad coalition that includes everyone from the oil industry to solar and wind trade associations.

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NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS BEGIN SHUTTING DOWN AHEAD OF HURRICANE: The two reactors that make up Duke Energy’s Brunswick nuclear power plant in coastal North Carolina will be shutting down in anticipation of strong winds and flooding from Hurricane Florence.

The North Carolina-based utility made the announcement as it prepared for as many as 3 million residents in the hurricane impact zone to lose electricity in the next few days.

The Brunswick plant is more than 40 years old and can supply electric power to 1 million households. It was issued a license extension recently by the federal government to continue running for another 20 years.

The power plant sits on 1,200 acres adjacent to the Cape Fear River. Hurricane damage is a concern, but reactors are hardened against both manmade and natural disasters, the company points out.

Multiple, robust safety barriers are in place, while each reactor has a concrete containment building and a steel chamber surrounding the part of the reactor that contains the nuclear fuel, according to Duke Energy.

Ghost of Fukushima: The Associated Press pointed out that the power plant is the same design as the Japanese reactor that suffered multiple reactor core meltdowns in 2011 after a tsunami in Fukushima, Japan.

A federal safety review of all U.S. nuclear power plants of the same design was conducted after the 2011 disaster. Washington directed plant operators to make changes if plant vulnerabilities were found.

Status looks good: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s most recent status report showed that the Brunswick plant has implemented all upgrades as ordered by the federal agency, with its last upgrade to be complete in the spring of 2019.

The Fukushima plant did not have the same number of redundant safety features as the same model of reactor used in the U.S., according to experts.

Lessons learned after Japan’s disaster: “Both the units at Brunswick and the units at Fukushima Dai-Ichi are GE boiling water reactors — beyond that, there are some significant differences, not the least of which are protected diesel generators and FLEX equipment installed at U.S. plants as part of the lessons learned after the Fukushima accident,” Roger Hannah, NRC spokesman, told John in an email.

GE-HITACHI INFORMS FEDS IT IS ALSO SHUTTING DOWN: The GE-Hitachi nuclear fuel processing plant near Wilmington, N.C., has also notified the federal commission that the plant will also be shutting down operations, the NRC said in ramping up its emergency response headquarters in Atlanta on Thursday.

As Duke Energy announced the shutdown, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees power plant safety in the U.S., ramped up its hurricane watch center in Atlanta.

Nuclear regulators on the ground: “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will staff its incident response center in Atlanta around the clock beginning this evening as it expands its monitoring of Hurricane Florence and its effects on nuclear power plants and other NRC-licensed facilities,” the NRC announced Thursday.

NRC staff members will monitor the path of Hurricane Florence on a 24-hour basis, while remaining in contact with plant operators, the commission’s on-site inspectors stationed at the power plants, the NRC’s headquarters operations center, and state emergency officials, the commission explained.

NRC inspectors will also remain at the plants themselves during the storm.

ENERGY DEPARTMENT DOING REAL-TIME TRACKING OF STORM: The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration is tracking the hurricane’s threat to energy infrastructure in real time, which the public is free to review online.

The Energy Department’s analysis arm will be monitoring the effects of the storm on power outages and other energy supply disruptions. As of Thursday, the agency showed that two of the 11 nuclear power plants in the hurricane impact zone — Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia — were operating at slightly reduced levels.

US COULD MEET TWO-THIRDS OF PARIS CLIMATE GOALS, WITHOUT TRUMP: The U.S. is on pace to meet two-thirds of the its carbon-emissions cutting goals under the Paris climate change agreement that Trump has rejected.

Without Trump’s support, cities, states, the private sector, and market forces together will help slash carbon emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, according to a report presented Thursday by California Gov. Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Global Climate Action Summit.

But it’s not enough: That means, the report said, the U.S. is within “striking distance” — but will fall short — of meeting the Paris targets of lowering the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

Reaching that level would help the world achieve the overarching goal of the Paris Agreement, limiting global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which many scientists say the world would see irreversible effects of climate change.

It’s a ‘tall mountain to climb’: Bloomberg, during a speech at the global climate conference in San Francisco, said the U.S. is currently nearly halfway to meeting the Paris goals.

“We are getting it done, but we still have a very tall mountain to climb,” Bloomberg said. “Everyday we are getting closer.”

The former mayor also had a message for the rest of the world committed to the Paris agreement. “To non-Americans, we’re going to keep fighting and keep winning,” he said. “Thank you for not giving up on us. We will get there no matter what obstacles Washington throws in our way.”

PROTESTERS INTERRUPT BLOOMBERG’S SPEECH AT CLIMATE CONFERENCE: Protestors stalled the opening of Bloomberg’s speech at the climate conference Thursday, chanting “the air is not for sale.”

Bloomberg lightheartedly deflected the protesters, while poking at extremists in the environmental movement.

This is America: “Only in America could you have environmentalists protesting an environmental conference,” Bloomberg said, before the protesters were escorted away.

Outside the conference, according to media reports, activists protested Brown, the Democratic California governor, for not doing enough to “keep it in the ground” by stopping oil and gas drilling in the state. California last year was the fourth largest producer of oil in the U.S.

Reality check: Brown just signed a law forcing the state to obtain 100 percent of its energy from carbon-free sources by 2045. And on Thursday, he signed a collection of bills meant to put more electric vehicles on the road.

TRUMP TO CREATE NEW NUCLEAR POWER AGENCY BY SIGNING BILL: The president is poised to sign into law a bill leading to the creation of a brand new agency of sorts, the National Reactor Innovation Center.

What it does: The center is part of a bipartisan bill meant to drive new, more advanced nuclear power plants to market sooner by forcing groups that already exist inside the government to collaborate toward that one goal.

Over the finish line: The bill, the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act, was included in the energy and water spending measure that managed to pass the finish line on Thursday and make it to the president’s desk.

Building new reactors: The center will pull together the technical expertise of the Department of Energy’s fleet of national labs with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct experimental reactors around the country. It will also partner with private industry to help commercialize the new reactors.

Making the U.S. a world leader: “At a time when our nuclear power capabilities have been slipping, this bill — soon to be law — will help the United States reestablish itself as a world leader in nuclear energy innovation,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Appropriations subcommittee on environment.

CONGRESS SENDS TRUMP SPENDING BILL THAT BOOSTS FUNDING FOR SCIENCE, ENERGY RESEARCH: Congress sent Trump its first spending bill of 2019 on Thursday, giving him legislation to sign that rejects the president’s proposed cuts in advanced energy research and science.

The “minibus” bill funds energy and water projects, military construction, and the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2019.

By the numbers: It gives the Energy Department’s Office of Science a 5.2 percent funding increase, to $6.59 billion. Trump had proposed slashing funding for the science office by nearly 14 percent. Trump had also sought a 70 percent cut to the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. But the House and Senate-approved legislation gives the renewables office a 2.5 percent increase to $2.38 billion.

That’s not all: And Congress rejected Trump’s request to eliminate the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, for the second year in a row, instead giving the agency a 3.7 percent boost to a record level of $366 million.

ARPA-E is a program with bipartisan support in Congress that funds innovations in energy technology, such as battery storage.

HOUSE COMMITTEE REACHES DEAL TO SAVE LAND CONSERVATION FUND: The leaders of the Natural Resources Committee reached a deal Thursday to save the Land Conservation Fund, a popular decades-old program that Trump has aimed to severely weaken.

The program expires at the end of this month, and Republicans and Democrats have struggled to agree on a deal to reauthorize it. But Reps. Rob Bishop of Utah and Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the chairman and top Democrat of the House committee, co-authored legislation to permanently reauthorize the program. The committee quickly approved the bill Thursday, sending it to the House floor.

Remember the good old days: “This is a taste of what’s possible when people work together in good faith,” Grijvala said. “Days like these are far too rare in Congress, and if we keep this up we might just restore public trust in Congress’ ability to get things done.”

Public perk: The Land and Water Conservation Fund gets its money from offshore oil and gas leases — rather than taxpayer money — and pays for public lands projects. It provides money to federal, state and local governments for buying land and waters to improve parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other public areas. The Bishop and Grijalva bill would split the funding between state and federal projects.

HOUSE-PASSED WATER INFRASTRUCTURE BILL GIVES HELP TO HYDRO: The House passed water infrastructure legislation Thursday that promotes more development of hydropower, America’s largest and oldest, but often forgotten, renewable energy source.

“This is a major suite of Republican and bipartisan efforts to help clean, reliable hydropower,” said Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath Action, a conservative group that advocates for clean energy.

America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 streamlines the permitting process for non-powered dam hydro projects to get them to market faster.

How hydro fits in the power mix: Hydropower, electricity generated using the energy of moving water, usually from dams, represents about 6 to 7 percent of all U.S. electricity production.

But hydropower generation fell for four consecutive years before increasing in 2016, according to the Department of Energy, and less capacity has been added each decade since the 1970s, even as America’s dams age.

RICK PERRY TELLS RUSSIAN COUNTERPART HE’S DISAPPOINTED MOSCOW KEEPS TRYING TO HACK GRID: Energy Secretary Rick Perry expressed “disappointment and concern” to Russia’s energy minister on Thursday about Moscow’s continue attempts to hack America’s power grid.

Perry shared his concerns with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak during a meeting in Moscow, the Energy Department said in a readout of the discussion.

The readout said Perry is upset about “Russia’s continued attempts to infiltrate the American electric grid.”

That description suggests that Russia has not stopped its hacking efforts after the Department of Homeland Security said in March that Russian hackers gained access to the U.S. electrical grid last year.

‘ARMAGEDDON’ GRIPS MASSACHUSETTS IN SERIES OF GAS EXPLOSIONS: A series of gas explosions killed a teenager and injured at least 10 other people in the wake of a series of fires north of Boston on Thursday that authorities blame on explosions caused by natural gas leaks.

“It looked like Armageddon, it really did,” Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield told reporters. “There were billows of smoke coming from Lawrence behind me. I could see pillars of smoke in front of me from the town of Andover.”

Residents were urged to evacuate their homes as fires and explosions were seen throughout the area.

State Police say Columbia Gas crews are working to depressurize gas lines in the area. Gov. Charlie Baker said state and local authorities are investigating the incident, but results could take weeks.

On Friday morning, reports said investigators were looking at the cause to be over-pressurization of a natural gas main pipeline owned by the Columbia Gas company, according to Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal’s office.

RUNDOWN

New York Times Florence’s path is strewn with toxic hazards

Los Angeles Times As Trump retreats, businesses assume new prominence in fighting climate change

Houston Chronicle How the ethane molecule changed the Gulf Coast, and the world

Reuters India’s Iran oil purchases to fade ahead of U.S. sanctions

Washington Post Can California fulfill its 100 percent carbon free electricity law?

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