Author

Robert Zullo

Robert Zullo

Robert Zullo is a national energy reporter for States Newsroom based in southern Illinois focusing on renewable power and the electric grid. Robert joined States Newsroom in 2018 as the founding editor of the Virginia Mercury.

people at a water park

With summer coming fast, regulator issues electric reliability warning

By: - May 22, 2023

As much as two thirds of North America could face shortages of electricity this summer in the event of severe and protracted heat, according to the regulator in charge of setting and enforcing standards for the electric grid.  “Increased, rapid deployment of wind, solar and batteries have made a positive impact,” said Mark Olson, manager […]

a coal-fired power plant sends emissions into the sky

EPA again proposes power plant carbon rules

By: - May 15, 2023

The Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan — intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Trump administration’s much-criticized replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, derided as a “tortured series of misreadings” of the U.S. Clean Air Act, was also tossed by a federal court. […]

a Georgia nuclear power plant

In the Southeast, where big utilities rule, calls for a real power market persist

By: - May 6, 2023

A report prepared for the South Carolina state legislature and released last week determined that a range of electric market and transmission reforms — including creating a new independent organization to run the electric grid or joining an existing one — would bring “substantial benefits” for customers, potentially as much as $362 million a year.  […]

a fence guarding an electric substation

After shootings, regulator doesn’t recommend additional substation security standards

By: - April 21, 2023

The organization in charge of setting and enforcing reliability standards for the U.S. electric grid isn’t recommending new physical security requirements for thousands of electric substations following a rash of shooting attacks that have knocked out power in parts of several states. Jim Robb, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, told the Federal […]

a flame burns at a Louisiana refinery

EPA sued over failure to set, update pollution limits

By: - April 13, 2023

More than a dozen environmental groups are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to set water pollution limits for some industrial contaminants as well as its reluctance to update decades-old standards for others, arguing that the agency’s inaction amounts to a “free pass to pollute” for hundreds of chemical and fertilizer plants, […]

Electric grid workers

Inside the battle over who gets to build the grid of the future

By: - April 10, 2023

The U.S. Department of Energy issued a draft report in February that found a “pressing need” for new electric transmission infrastructure across the country to improve reliability, connect a rapidly growing number of solar, wind and battery storage projects, supply increasing electric demand and alleviate scattered pockets of consistently high prices across the country. To […]

Here’s where renewable power is increasing (and where it’s not)

By: - April 4, 2023

Despite supply-chain problems amid the lingering effects of the pandemic, 2022 saw major increases in solar and wind power in the United States, though that growth varied by state, according to a report released last month by a nonprofit focused on climate change. Nationally, electricity generated from solar and wind grew 16% from 2021, with […]

Electric transmission lines

The nation’s biggest electric capacity market needs fixing, critics say

By: - March 16, 2023

The nation’s largest grid operator is warning that it might not have enough electric generation in the future to guarantee reliability.  And it comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission convenes a forum on the multibillion-dollar capacity market PJM operates to ensure there’s enough power to meet demand even during grid emergencies, such as during Winter Storm Elliott last year.

Wind and whales: ‘No evidence’ links projects to deaths

By: - March 2, 2023

Duke University marine biologist's assessment debunks claims advanced on Fox News The U.S. offshore wind power industry is in its infancy, with just a handful of turbines installed along the Atlantic coast. But they’re already being blamed for the deaths of whales that have washed up on beaches in New Jersey, New York, Virginia and elsewhere.

After a series of winter storms, regulators approve new standards for power plants

By: - February 23, 2023

Two years after Winter Storm Uri, which caused a massive power failure in Texas that caused more than 200 deaths, and just two months after another storm, Elliott, forced blackouts in parts of the South, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved new extreme cold reliability standards for power plants. However, the vote last week […]

an Ohio windfarm

Special report: Despite urgency of climate crisis, several states see a backlash to renewable energy

By: - February 18, 2023

BUCYRUS, Ohio — In four terms as a county elected official in northern Ohio, it was the most contentious issue Doug Weisenauer had ever seen. The state legislature had newly empowered county governments to drastically restrict wind and solar power development, a process formerly overseen by the Ohio Power Siting Board, and the meetings of […]

Federal-state task force grapples with grid protection

By: - February 16, 2023

Moore County attack is among those drawing the attention of federal regulators A federal task force wrestled with the costs and benefits of better shielding the nation’s tens of thousands of electric substations from a growing number of attacks, like a neo-Nazi plot the FBI says it foiled earlier this month in Maryland, another that knocked out power to thousands in North Carolina in December and more in the Pacific Northwest.