Energy & Fuel

"President Obama on Thursday signed into law a measure that is intended to improve energy efficiency in buildings and stop efficiency rules for certain water heaters."

"In recent years, the fast-growing popularity of solar panels has intensified a central challenge: how to use the sun’s energy when it isn’t shining. Now, Tesla Motors, the maker of luxury electric sedans, says it is taking a big step toward meeting that challenge with a fleet of battery systems aimed at homeowners, businesses and utilities."

"On Friday, May 1 at 10:30 a.m., U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Canada’s Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt will hold a press conference to announce the next generation of stronger, safer rail tank cars for the transportatio
n of flammable liquids in North America. Secretary Foxx will also announce other aspects of DOT’s final rule. The press conference will be streamed live online here."

"The Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board said they have divested 12 million pounds ($18.42 million) from their investments in thermal coal and tar sands companies as part of an initiative aimed at promoting transition to a low carbon economy."

"It would sit in the icy waters of the Arctic, and provide a constant supply of electricity to a massive rig drilling for oil. They could be mass produced, potentially cutting the cost of drilling projects. The twist? The electricity on these floating power plants would come from a nuclear reactor."

"If Royal Dutch Shell’s Arctic drilling program leads to a major spill, it could cost the oil company — and therefore its shareholders — an entire year’s worth of profit, according to a Tuesday legal filing by the conservation group Oceana and a University of Chicago law clinic."

"The waterway linking Gulf Coast oil with the refineries of Baton Rouge has brought great prosperity to Louisiana. But the people living in 'Cancer Alley' have a different story to tell."

"An Energy Department report shows that while hydro can be finicky, it could be a bigger part of a carbon-reduced future."

"Duke Energy, the largest electric utility in the US, has agreed to provide dozens of families in North Carolina with bottled water after state testing found private wells near sites where the company stores coal waste contaminated with potentially toxic chemicals."

The White House Tuesday issued veto threats for two GOP-sponsored 2016 appropriations bills likely to be taken up by the House this week. One is the Energy and Water appropriation, which the White House says underfunds clean energy jobs programs and contains "ideological riders" such as one that would thwart efforts to protect clean water.