Energy News Network (https://energynews.us/author/kkowalski/)
Kathi is the author of 25 books and more than 600 articles, and writes often on science and policy issues. In addition to her journalism career, Kathi is an alumna of Harvard Law School and has spent 15 years practicing law. She is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers.
The fate of a pair of 1950s-era coal plants and the largest solar project ever proposed in Ohio are entangled in a single case before the state’s Supreme Court.
Ohio oil and gas drillers could use existing technology to find and fix most methane leaks at little or no cost to their bottom lines, according to experts on a recent panel at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Ohio regulators let FirstEnergy collect $168 million a year from ratepayers with virtually no strings attached for how it is spent.
Federal regulators are watching the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants in Ohio more closely after problems with backup systems surfaced at both sites within the last year.
Ohio’s Davis-Besse nuclear plant is scheduled to close within three years, but decommissioning could take up to 60 years, and after that a regulated radioactive fuel storage facility will remain on the site indefinitely. FirstEnergy’s generation subsidiaries announced plans to shut down Davis-Besse and two other nuclear plants three days before filing for bankruptcy in March. Dealing with radioactive fuel and waste, decontamination and demolition will take decades. Inspectors and analysts for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission outlined the process at a public meeting last month in nearby Port Clinton, Ohio. Officials with FirstEnergy Solutions and the Environmental Law & Policy Center also attended.