The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has made several safety recommendations in the aftermath of a 2023 incident that saw high winds tear blades from a helicopter parked offshore. The new report into the 2023 incident confirmed that a failed rotor brake allowed the Airbus H175’s rotors to continue spinning in high winds. This caused four of its five blades to snap off, almost striking one of the two workers tying the vehicle down. Storm Otto struck the UK in February 2023, subjecting north-east Scotland to 100 mile per hour winds. Aircraft G-MCSH, an Airbus H175 operated by Offshore Helicopter Services UK (OHS), was parked on the TotalEnergies-operated Elgin-Franklin platform, 130 miles from Aberdeen, when the incident took place. The report added that vertical air flow caused by the ‘cliff edge’ effect of an accommodation block on the platform exacerbated the rotor blade sailing. In addition, changing wind directions meant that the helicopter was no longer facing into the wind, but was increasingly being subjected to wind from its right side. In the aftermath of the event, OHS now requires pilots to record the rotor stop time after brake application on each shutdown. If the stop time is found to exceed 40 seconds, a check of the brake and its adjustment is required. The AAIB report laid out a total of six safety recommendations in its report. These include requiring Airbus Helicopters to expedite the inclusion of improved rotor brake maintenance procedures in the EC175 Aircraft Maintenance Manual. The report also said that Leading Offshore Energy Industry Competitiveness Ltd should incorporate comparative wind speed analysis as part of the Helimet quality control and notification system. In addition, an earlier report found that issues with a flight recorder on board the helicopter meant that images and data on the incident were

Dive Brief: House Republicans on Thursday morning narrowly passed a sweeping budget bill that guts federal support for wind, solar, storage and other clean energy industries. The bill terminates most technology-neutral clean energy tax credits for projects placed in service after 2028 and those that begin construction more than 60 days after the bill’s passage. It also tightens restrictions on foreign entities’ involvement in projects, creating a “truly untenable” situation for developers, Jeffries analysts said Thursday. Nuclear projects have more time to qualify for the credit. The bill advances to the Senate, which is expected to take it up next month. Several Republican senators are calling for significant changes, and questions remain as to how the two houses will reconcile “sharply contrasting versions of the bill,” Jeffries said. Dive Insight: The text that passed the House on a 215-214, party-line vote early Thursday is even less favorable to clean energy interests than a previous draft that industry groups widely panned. The bill terminates the 48E investment and 45Y production tax credits for non-nuclear clean energy projects placed in service after 2028, with no phaseout period. Projects must begin construction within 60 days of the bill’s enactment — likely later this year — to be eligible for the credits. The version the House Ways and Means Committee released on May 12 stepped down the value of the 48E and 45Y credits over three years and did not include the imminent construction-start requirement, giving developers and asset owners more leeway to wait out lengthy waits for grid interconnection. Combined with even tighter restrictions on foreign involvement in U.S. clean energy projects, the truncated eligibility window leaves a “near impossible” pathway for non-nuclear developers to qualify for the 48E and 45Y credits, Jeffries said. The foreign involvement restrictions apply to “foreign entities of

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 1.3 million barrels from the week ending May 9 to the week ending May 16, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. That EIA report was released on May 21 and included data for the week ending May 16. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 443.2 million barrels on May 16, 441.8 million barrels on May 9, and 458.8 million barrels on May 17, 2024. The EIA report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 400.5 million barrels on May 16, 399.7 million barrels on May 9, and 368.8 million barrels on May 17, 2024, the report outlined. Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.623 billion barrels on May 16, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were up 5.8 million barrels week on week and up 4.3 million barrels year on year, the report revealed. “At 443.2 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report. “Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.8 million barrels from last week and are about two percent below the five year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories increased last week,” it added. “Distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.6 million barrels last week and are about 16 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 2.7

Dive Brief: Commercial and small business customers in New York City will see summer power bills rise by about 10% and 8%, respectively, Consolidated Edison warned Wednesday. Residential customers will see smaller increases, the utility said. The price increases are part of a national trend amid rising demand. “Retail electricity prices have increased faster than the rate of inflation since 2022, and we expect them to continue increasing through 2026,” the U.S. Energy Information Administration said May 14. Utilities are making large investments to meet growing demand for electricity. ConEdison has spent about $2.35 billion on its distribution system since last summer, the utility said, including new substation equipment, underground cables and transformers. Dive Insight: U.S. energy prices rapidly increased from 2020 to 2022 as a result of the global pandemic and supply chain interruptions tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Fuel prices have declined in recent years, but electricity price increases have continued unabated, EIA said. “We expect the nominal U.S. average electricity price to increase by 13% from 2022 to 2025,” EIA said. “Parts of the country with relatively high electricity prices may experience greater price increases than those with relatively low electricity prices.” The Pacific Coast has seen retail electricity prices rise 26% since 2022, the federal government’s energy data arm said. New England and mid-Atlantic prices have risen 19%. Optional Caption Retrieved from U.S. Energy Information Administration. Retail bills include the cost of generation, transmission and distribution, along with taxes and fees. ConEd has been investing billions in its distribution system, and also raised delivery charges in January under a rate plan the New York State Public Service Commission approved in 2023, the utility said. A typical residential customer in New York City can expect average monthly bills to be 2.7% higher from June to September, relative

Dive Brief: House Republicans’ proposed wind-down of clean energy tax credits and key Department of Energy programs would reverse the nuclear industry’s recent momentum and threaten the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” goals, Nuclear Energy Institute CEO Maria Korsnick said on Tuesday. In an address at NEI’s annual Nuclear Energy Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., Korsnick emphasized the need for further reforms at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, federal support for an expanded U.S. nuclear supply chain and public-private workforce investments if the industry is to meet expected future power demand. “We’re facing some headwinds, and the actions we take today will define what the future looks like,” Korsnick said. “We will be out there pounding the pavement every step of the way.” Dive Insight: During her 25-minute address and a brief question-and-answer session afterward, Korsnick reiterated concerns raised by nuclear industry stakeholders in an April 30 letter to House and Senate leaders. NEI organized the campaign and collected more than 120 signatures from utilities, independent power producers, reactor developers, nuclear services firms and others. The letter urged Congress to preserve four Inflation Reduction Act tax credits that benefit the nuclear industry, including technology-neutral clean energy investment and production credits and a separate production tax credit for existing nuclear reactors. But today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping budget package that terminated the technology-neutral credits for new and expanded nuclear reactor projects that begin construction after 2028, four years earlier than current law requires. The bill also imposed new domestic sourcing and ownership requirements that some experts say are broadly unworkable, though it’s unclear whether those will affect existing or planned nuclear power plants. The changes surprised some nuclear advocates, given the Trump administration’s stated support for nuclear energy and the president’s influence with the GOP House caucus.  “We aren’t

Hydrogen will play a pivotal role in the Tees Valley’s plans to decarbonise local industry. Speaking to Energy Voice, Tees Valley Combined Authority head of net zero Chris Rowell said: “There have been people who’ve pushed a particular technology or ideology. We’ve always said: whatever works for industry, that creates jobs and decarbonises the UK’s manufacturing base, works for Tees Valley.” “The hydrogen picture actually works really well for us.” In its 2022 Net Zero Strategy, the region laid out its ambitions to create the UK’s first decarbonised heavy industrial cluster by 2040. Central to its strategy is building out 4 GW of hydrogen production by 2030 and developing a National Hydrogen Transport Hub. Among the projects in the area is EDF’s Tees Green Hydrogen project, which secured UK government funding as part of the net zero hydrogen fund (NZHF) and the first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1). The project will use renewable electricity from the Teesside offshore wind farm and a planned solar farm to power hydrogen electrolysers. In addition, the HAR2 auction saw MorGen Energy secure a spot for its Teesside Green Hydrogen project. “You’ve got ready-made use cases for hydrogen and we can already see hydrogen producers who’ve chosen the Tees Valley interacting with sustainable fuels projects and industrial use cases as well,” said Rowell. “And that’s before you look at where to send hydrogen and the rest of the UK.” By making the Tees Valley a national Hydrogen Transport Hub, the region will have a central role in driving the UK’s energy transition. “We find all of the UK’s industrial clusters and manufacturing centres say we would get more inward investment if we have cheaper energy,” Rowell noted. “We are exploring options in partnership with Northern Gas Networks through the East Coast Hydrogen Initiative to look at