Electricity generation by the U.S. electric power sector totaled about 4,260 billion kilowatthours (BkWh) in 2025. In our latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we expect U.S. electricity generation will grow by 1.1% in 2026 and by 2.6% in 2027, when it reaches an annual total of 4,423 BkWh. The three main dispatchable … [continued]
The German hydrogen backbone without customers or suppliers—a pipeline from nowhere to nowhere—is real steel in the ground, pressurized and defended as inevitable, yet it is being built for an energy system that does not need it. That claim sounds provocative until the energy flows are laid out in full. … [continued]
Washington, D.C. — Today, Politico reported that the Trump administration will use funding legally directed by Congress to reduce pollution to instead help build new and prop up aging, expensive, polluting coal plants. Responding to competitive pressure from lower cost and lower risk resources, utilities have voluntarily retired 158 coal plants over … [continued]
The comparison between Germany’s hydrogen backbone from nowhere to nowhere and China’s reported 1,000km-plus hydrogen pipeline keeps resurfacing, often framed as evidence that Germany is simply early rather than wrong. It is a fair question, because at a distance both projects appear similar. Both involve long-distance hydrogen pipelines. Both are … [continued]
Electricity from burning coal declined in both China and India last year, thanks to more renewables, but things are different in the US.
The Trump EPA has unveiled a final rule under the Clean Air Act that revises emission limits for dangerous nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution from new gas-burning turbines used in power plants and industrial facilities. Emissions of NOx form smog and soot, which is harmful to human health and linked to serious heart … [continued]
Omaha, Nebraska — Reports of a steam tube failure at OPPD’s North Omaha coal plant once again raise reliability, health, and safety concerns. As a result of the failure, one of the two remaining coal units was taken offline last week. The forced outage follows a recent OPPD board vote to … [continued]
Trump administration continues to undermine Colorado’s efforts to turn the page on coal DENVER — The Trump Administration’s EPA today disapproved Colorado’s Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, again illegally undermining the state’s efforts to rein in pollution from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources. The state’s plan includes retirement deadlines … [continued]
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would once again delay enforcement of regional haze guidelines and give states a three year extension to submit plans to clean up harmful air pollution at national parks and improve public health. Under the regional haze program, states must … [continued]
DENVER — [On Tuesday], the Trump administration issued an “emergency” order to force utilities to operate Craig Unit 1 against their will, past the Dec. 31 retirement deadline that the utilities had decided upon and their state regulators had approved. Trump’s actions to prop up an uneconomic coal plant will drive … [continued]
