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From the Chicago Daily Herald | ComEd is “patrolling” St. Charles trying to figure out what caused a power outage Thursday that affected thousands of customers in and around downtown St. Charles, a city official said. The outage was reported at 1:12 p.m. after two substations lost a major electrical feed from ComEd.
Get the full story: dailyherald.com.
From The Times Online | Lamar McKay, the chairman of Chicago-based BP America, said that he was “encouraged” by Obama’s decision to open up vast tracts of America’s coastline to exploration. “It’s a constructive step. We believe the industry has a strong track record of performance in the Gulf of Mexico and are confident that development can be done elsewhere in the same safe and environmentally sensitive manner while creating needed jobs,” he said.
Get the full story: timesonline.com.
Associated Press | The U.S. government is setting tough gas
mileage standards for new cars and trucks, spurring the next generation
of fuel-sipping gas-electric hybrids, efficient engines and electric
cars.
The heads of the Transportation Department and the Environmental
Protection Agency on Thursday will sign final rules requiring 2016
model-year vehicles to meet fuel efficiency targets of 35.5 miles per
gallon combined for cars and trucks, an increase of nearly 10 mpg over
current standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration.
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Nonprofit group Greenpeace criticized data centers run by tech giants like Microsoft and Google on Wednesday, saying that their centers consume too much electricity. At Microsoft’s new Chicago data center, 72.8 percent of power was generated by coal, and 22.3 percent was nuclear, according to Greenpeace.
Get the full story: seattlepi.com.
From Reuters.com | Two gasoline refineries serving the Chicago area said they planned to delay spring maintenance work to keep operating and benefit from higher margins. The BP refinery in Whiting, Ind. said it would delay work while the Marathon Oil refinery in Robinson said may push back work slated for June into the fall.
Get the full story: reuters.com
Tribune staff report | FedEx unveiled the first all-electric, full-size delivery vehicle in the U.S. Monday. The delivery truck was rolled out this morning at Soldier Field, before beginning a two-week road trip on Route 66. The zero-emission truck, built by Navistar, is designed to offer a full eight-hour shift of power before needing a recharge.
An Exelon nuclear power station in Pennsylvania. (Bradley C. Bower/Bloomberg)
By Julie Wernau | Chicago-based Exelon Corp. is moving to preserve for 20 years its option of building a new nuclear power plant — possibly the first new plant in the United States in more than 30 years — in Victoria County, Texas.
Exelon filed an application Thursday through its subsidiary Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings LLC. At the same time, the company withdrew its application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the construction and operation of that plant. A decision on whether or not to build the plant would be made “years in the future,” the company said.
By Wailin Wong | The head of Exelon Corp.’s Washington D.C. office is retiring this summer after a decade with the Chicago-based electric utility.
Exelon said Elizabeth A. “Betsy” Moler, whose title is executive vice president of government affairs and public policy, will retire effective July 1. David Brown, who heads Exelon’s federal legislative affairs, will oversee the Washington D.C. office.
From TheStreet.com | Naperville-based Broadwind Energy benefited Tuesday from investors’ interest in the wind sector; its shares rose more than 6 percent, and it experienced close to twice its average daily trading volume.
Get the full story: thestreet.com.
The Aon Center has earned an Energy Star qualification from the EPA. (Tribune photo by John Lee)
By Wailin Wong | Chicago has moved up in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s annual ranking of U.S. metropolitan areas with energy efficient buildings, climbing to No. 5 in 2009 from No. 6 in 2008.
Chicago has 134 buildings that have earned an Energy Star qualification from the EPA, awarded to facilities that meet certain criteria on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Local buildings with this distinction include McDonald’s campus office building in Oak Brook, the Aon Center in Chicago and King Lab Magnet School in Evanston, the EPA said.
A customer gasses up in Naperville earlier this month. (Chuck Berman/ Chicago Tribune)
By Ameet Sachdev | Average prices at Chicago gas pumps cracked $3 a gallon on Friday, and motorists better get used to paying that much.
Chicago gas prices have increased more than 11 cents in the past week, and 9 cents statewide, according to AAA.
Prices typically go up this time of year across the country on
anticipation that demand will rise as spring arrives. But the 3.8
percent jump this week in Chicago and the 1.6 percent bump in Illinois
is unusual and has even caught fuel analysts off guard.
Associated Press | Shares in Integrys Energy Group Inc., parent
of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, ave gotten too expensive and its
guidance seems aggressive, said an analyst on Friday as he downgraded
the stock.
Citi Investment Research analyst Faisel Khan downgraded the company to
“Sell from “Hold,” citing the recent share price run, aggressive
earnings guidance and the stock’s current value. Shares of the company fell $1.02 to $45.87 per share in midday trading.
Since early February shares have climbed more than 14 percent to close
Thursday at $46.83.
Associated Press | Chicago-based Exelon Corp. says it will shut down the oldest nuclear power plant in the U.S., rather than build cooling towers mandated by environmental regulators in New Jersey. Exelon says the $800 million that it would cost to build the towers is more than the 40-year-old Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station is worth.
Associated Press | It’ll soon be time to say goodbye to AmerenIP,
AmerenCIPS and AmerenCILCO. St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. plans to merge its three Illinois electric
and gas utilities into a single utility known as Ameren Illinois.
Los Angeles Times | Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev plans to start making watered-down beer — as in cutting down water usage in its production process to help make the company’s operations more eco-friendly. By the end of 2012, the company plans to whittle down its worldwide water use by 30 percent.
Get the full story: latimes.com.
