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EPA Announces Proposed Rule Action to Revise ELG's and Support Reliable, Affordable Coal-fired Power Plants

LCG, May 14, 2026--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it is proposing a rule to revise wastewater limits, known as effluent limitations guidelines (ELG), for steam electric power plants that will help improve grid reliability and lower electricity prices while continuing to support clean and safe water resources. If finalized, the EPA's proposal is estimated to reduce electricity generation costs by as much as $1.1 billion annually, which could provide cost-savings to American consumers.

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DOE Awards $94 Million to Eight American Companies to Accelerate SMR Deployments and Develop Supply Chain

LCG, May 14, 2026--The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the selection of eight companies to support the near-term deployment of advanced light-water small modular reactors (SMRs) in the United States. The DOE states that awardees will collectively receive more than $94 million in Federal cost-shared funding to spur additional Gen III+ SMR deployments by addressing key gaps that have hindered the domestic nuclear industry in licensing, supply chain, and site preparation.

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Industry News

CA ISO to Implement Damage Control as Electricity Price Caps Expire

LCG, October 29, 2002-The California Independent System Operator (ISO), responsible for transmission reliability in the state, is preparing to apply its new market design when the electricity price cap expires tomorrow.

California's wholesale electricity price cap, currently set at $91.87 per megawatt-hour, was instituted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in June of 2001 to curb spikes in electricity prices. FERC has neglected to extend the price caps beyond October 30, and the California ISO took this into account when creating its new market design proposal.

The ISO will use a three-test bid evaluation system in order to determine whether or not an offered wholesale price is reasonable. Prices determined to be unreasonably high will be lowered to a rate determined by an "independent third party." Also, California generators will be forced, under FERC's rules, to offer all available capacity to the market if it is needed. Out-of-state suppliers will also be forced to provide available capacity to other control areas in the west as needed.

Bid evaluation will be conducted by the Automatic Mitigation Procedure (AMP), which will determine whether or not a bid is consistent with recent bid history by computer. AMP is only used if the predicted Market Clearing Price is greater than $91.87. If the bid is significantly greater than the projected, unit-specific price and the bid will increase the Market Clearing Price by more than 200 percent or $50, the bid fails and will be lowered to the unit-specific reference price. More detail on the market rules can be found from the ISO's website: www.caiso.com.

Current wholesale electricity prices are well below last summer's and have remained around $30 to $40 per megawatt-hour.

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