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Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in West Virginia vs. EPA, ruling that the Clean Air Act did not specifically authorize the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Now, any greenhouse gas regulations would need specific authorization from Congress. At issue was the Clean Power Plan (CPP), an EPA regulation promulgated by the Obama administration which mandated that existing coal and natural gas power plants reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. There were many problems with this regulation, some of them were legal, and some of them were practical. Legally Speaking.. The...

LOS ANGELES -- The California Public Utilities Commission will release Thursday a supplement to a September report that said generators withheld available power during blackouts, CPUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The supplement, which will be released one hour before the commission's Thursday meeting, addresses generators' objections to the original report issued by Loretta Lynch, former president of the commission. Michael Peevey, who directed staff last October to investigate generator responses to the report, was promoted to president on New Year's Eve. "The supplemental report is a refinement of the analysis that was presented in the previous staff Wholesale...

<p>Despite the widespread power outages during November's and December's storms, the lights stayed on at Peter Cartwright's Saratoga home. Other than that, though, last year was not one of his brightest. Cartwright, the CEO of San Jose energy company Calpine, saw his company's stock fall more than 80 percent. Energy crisis fallout and corporate scandals buffeted his industry. The low point came when the New York Times business section pictured Cartwright and Gov. Gray Davis with a story predicting that Calpine would be the next Enron.</p>

<p>Proclaiming their innocence, California's major power generators on Wednesday outlined for federal regulators some of the ways that plant owners profited from complex twists and turns in the state's electricity markets.</p> <p>Duke, Dynegy, Mirant, Reliant and Williams acknowledged their behavior shared some traits with the trading tricks detailed in Enron Corp. memos. All stressed they followed rules and did nothing wrong.</p>

<p>Mounting debt for construction of power plants continues to wallop Calpine Corp.</p> <p>The San Jose power company's stock -- already down 73 percent for the year - - tumbled 9 percent yesterday after Standard & Poor's downgraded its credit rating, which was already in junk territory.</p>

California could be strapped for power by 2004 because new power plants slated to be built by then might not be finished in time to meet increased demand, the California Energy Commission has warned. Claudia Chandler, assistant executive director of the commission, said the demand for power in 2004 is expected to top 62,150 megawatts -- 4,450 megawatts more than is anticipated for this summer. A megawatt of electricity can power 750 houses. But that doesn't necessarily mean the state will be plunged into rolling blackouts, she said. That depends on a host of factors, including an extraordinarily hot...