WASHINGTON−−(BUSINESS WIRE)−− A new study based on revised Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from natural gas finds that gas−fired electricity still produces 50 percent fewer emissions than does coal−fired generation. The reduction in GHG is even greater when compared to coal−fired plants built at least 30 years ago.

The paper was written by Gregory C. Staple, CEO of American Clean Skies Foundation, and Joel N. Swisher Ph.D., director of technical services for Camco International, a carbon offset developer, and a consulting professor of engineering at Stanford University.

CHATTANOOGA, TENN. − The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors approved a landmark agreement today with three citizen groups, four states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), marking one of the largest pollution reduction agreements in the nation’s history. This agreement requires TVA to phase out 18 units at dirty, coal−fired power plants and install modern pollution controls on three dozen additional units, thanks to more than 11 years of pressure from environmental groups, Southeastern states and the EPA. The blockbuster agreement − which includes the affected states of Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee − represents the largest ever reduction in air pollution in the Southeastern United States. This agreement permanently retires an unprecedented 2,700 megawatts of dirty coal−fired electricity and will drastically reduce TVA’s emissions of dangerous sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon pollution.

BERLIN (AFP) − Germany’s cabinet approved a draft law on storing carbon dioxide underground on Wednesday after months of debate as Europe’s top economy wrangles over energy policy following Japan’s nuclear disaster.

“Recent developments have again brought home to us the efforts we need to make to ensure power generation is sustainable, climate−friendly, safe and economically viable,” Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said.

FARMINGTON — Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly signed a 25−year lease extension for the Four Corners Power Plant on Monday, a major step toward ensuring the decades−old plant continues to operate.

Shelly’s approval, revealed Tuesday, cements an agreement with Arizona Public Service Co., the utility that operates the plant. APS threatened to begin closing the plant if the tribe did not approve a lease extension by the end of March.

The current site lease will expire in July 2016. The extension allows the plant to continue operating until 2041.

WASHINGTON − The Environmental Protection Agency revoked the permit for one of the nation’s largest mountaintop−removal coal mining projects on Thursday, saying the mine would have done unacceptable damage to rivers, wildlife and communities in West Virginia. It was the first time the agency had rescinded a valid clean water permit for a coal mine.

In a significant legal victory for Navajo campaigners, a federal judge has voided a permit for the expansion of one of two operating mines on the Navajo reservation, calling for a more thorough review of the project’s impact on the environment and on cultural sites.

In a decision issued Friday, Judge John L. Kane of United States District Court for the District of Colorado ordered the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, part of the federal Department of Interior, to reassess the proposed expansion of the Navajo Mine on tribal land in New Mexico.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing pollution controls that would mean an 80 percent reduction in smog−causing nitrogen oxides from the coal−fired Four Corners Power Plant on the Navajo Nation.

EPA officials say the proposal will require Arizona Public Service Company, which operates the 45−year−old plant in northwestern New Mexico, to install selective catalytic reduction on all five of its units. The agency said it’s the most stringent pollution control technology available for that type of facility.

Read more: ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: UPDATED: EPA Proposes Nitrogen Oxides Reduction at Four Corners Power Plant
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In the endeavor to reduce greenhouse emissions, carbon capture and storage technology continues to generate a lot of interest.

The idea, of course, is to reduce the planet−warming capacity of heavy industries that burn fossil fuels (chiefly coal−fired power plants, at this stage) by collecting the carbon dioxide they would ordinarily spew out into the atmosphere and, well, storing it somewhere.

The electricity market is in the doldrums, but the market for new generating stations that use natural gas is going strong, industry experts say. Why? Because gas is beginning to replace coal, according to Randy H. Zwirn, president of the Siemens Power Generation Group.

Today Siemens is announcing that it has won contracts to supply five new high−efficiency gas plants to Progress Energy at two sites in North Carolina that have old coal−fired generators.

WASHINGTON (AFP) − The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed an unprecedented veto to restrict or prohibit mining at a major proposed US mountaintop removal coal mining site.

If the veto is finalized, it would invalidate a permit first issued in 2007 for the Army Corps of Engineers at the Spruce No. 1 surface mine in southern West Virginia.

WASHINGTON — Coal-country lawmakers moved Thursday to impose a two−year moratorium on potential federal regulation of carbon dioxide and other climate−altering gases.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, said the Environmental Protection Agency should refrain from issuing any new rules on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other major stationary sources for two years to allow Congress to pass comprehensive legislation on energy and climate change.

WASHINGTON − Hoping to earn support from coal and farm states for a languishing energy and climate bill, President Barack Obama on Wednesday created a task force to push for cleaner coal and unveiled a plan to help finance biofuels.

Moreover, a presidential committee recommended spending more money to make biofuels such as ethanol, saying the U.S. is likely to otherwise fall short of mandates for more environmentally friendly energy.

A Texas company that builds power plants around the country said Thursday that it had been granted a federal permit for a new one near San Francisco that, at its own request, sets a limit for carbon dioxide output.

Calpine Corporation said it was the first permit in the United States to set such a limit.

SANTA FE, N.M. − Rancher Jack Chatfield sees untapped value in the spaces that lie beneath New Mexico's dusty landscape. But he said the state needs to first decide who owns them.

Scientists are looking at underground fissures and caverns as places where carbon dioxide emissions captured from fossil fuel power plants can be stored. Carbon emissions are among the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The underground space also could store compressed air as part of a process to generate clean electricity.