Author

Robert Zullo

Robert Zullo

Robert Zullo is a national energy reporter based in southern Illinois focusing on renewable power and the electric grid. Robert joined States Newsroom in 2018 as the founding editor of the Virginia Mercury. Before that, he spent 13 years as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Louisiana. He has a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He grew up in Miami, Fla., and central New Jersey.

General view after a massive fire erupted at a crude oil refinery that triggered several large explosions at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex on June 21, 2019, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fire broke out in the early morning that triggered a vat of butane to ingnite with an explosion so large that it was detected from space. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

Report faults EPA for not enforcing limits on toxic benzene emissions at oil refineries

By: - September 11, 2023

The federal Environmental Protection Agency must do a better job ensuring that oil refineries that exceed emissions limits for benzene, a toxic, carcinogenic pollutant, cut those concentrations, the agency’s inspector general found. “Thirteen of the 18 refineries we reviewed had benzene concentrations above the action level in 20 or more weeks after the initial exceedance,” […]

A PPL Electric Utilities employee installs a dynamic line rating sensor onto a transmission line in Pennsylvania from a helicopter. The sensors allow utilities to take into account wind speed, cloud cover and other conditions to determine if a line has more capacity.  (Photo courtesy of PPL Electric Utilities)

Federal, state regulators prod utilities to consider technology for grid upgrade

By: - August 28, 2023

Of the many challenges confronting the nation’s aging, straining electric grid, the need for a lot of new transmission capacity is among the most pressing, experts and policymakers say. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy said the nation will need thousands of miles of new lines to better link regions to handle extreme […]

The Blue Creek wind farm in Ohio, consists of 152 wind turbines with a total capacity of 304 megawatts. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has finalized new rules that are expected to help ease the backlog of new wind, solar and battery storage projects awaiting regulatory approval. (Photo by Robert Zullo/ States Newsroom)

Federal regulators approve new rules to ease power connection backlogs 

By: - July 28, 2023

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday finalized long-awaited new rules intended to reform how power generation projects get connected to the electric grid, seen as a major step in smoothing the path for thousands of mostly renewable power projects currently waiting to plug in. “This rule will ensure that our country’s vast generation resources […]

ROMEOVILLE, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 01: A worker moves coal at a coal-fired power plant on February 01, 2019 in Romeoville, Illinois. The recent polar vortex taxed power systems across the Midwest as demand for electricity climbed as temperatures plunged. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Winter is coming and the U.S. grid remains vulnerable to power plant failures

By: - July 24, 2023

From winter storms to sweltering summer heat, there’s a consensus among experts that increasing extreme weather, a shifting electric generation mix, delays in getting new power generation projects connected and the difficulties in getting new transmission lines and other infrastructure built all pose an increasing risk to the grid. At U.S. Senate committee hearings as […]

This is an aerial view of a dirt road leading up through the Thacker Pass lithium mining area in the arid Nevada desert, seen in an undated photo. (Getty Images)

Decarbonization ambitions ignite debate over mining, permitting  

By: - May 31, 2023

The decarbonized, electrified future envisioned by the Biden administration, state governments, automakers, utility companies and corporate sustainability goals depends to a huge degree on minerals and metals. Lots more lithium will be needed for car and truck batteries, as well as the big banks of batteries that are increasingly popping onto the electric grid to […]

Smoke rises from a coal-fired power plant on Feb. 1, 2019, in Romeoville, Illinois. The recent polar vortex taxed power systems across the Midwest as demand for electricity climbed as temperatures plunged. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

EPA again proposes power plant carbon rules

By: - May 15, 2023

The Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan — intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Trump administration’s much-criticized replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, derided as a “tortured series of misreadings” of the U.S. Clean Air Act, was also tossed by a federal court. […]

Scott Anderson, a researcher at the Idaho National Laboratory's Irradiated Materials Characterization Lab, works with materials in a "glovebox" as part of the lab's research into how exposure to radiation alters reactor components. The lab's research is aimed at understanding how materials and fuels respond to radiation, which is crucial data as licenses for existing nuclear reactors are extended. (Photo by Robert Zullo/ States Newsroom)

With decarbonization, advocates see a bright future for nuclear after decades of dormancy 

By: - May 1, 2023

IDAHO FALLS, Id.  — At the sprawling array of laboratories and test facilities in the southeastern Idaho desert where the U.S. nuclear power industry was born more than 70 years ago, past, present and future are converging. Not far from where the first reactor to ever produce usable electricity made history in 1951, Idaho National […]

Service technicians work to install the foundation for a transmission tower at the CenterPoint Energy power plant on June 10, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Inside the battle over who gets to build the grid of the future

By: - April 5, 2023

The U.S. Department of Energy issued a draft report in February that found a “pressing need” for new electric transmission infrastructure across the country to improve reliability, connect a rapidly growing number of solar, wind and battery storage projects, supply increasing electric demand and alleviate scattered pockets of consistently high prices across the country. To […]

The GE-Alstom Block Island Wind Farm stands 3 miles off of Block Island on Sept. 22, 2016, New Shoreham, Rhode Island. The five 6-megawatt wind turbines were expected to produce more energy than Block Island needed. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Wind and whales: ‘No evidence’ links projects to deaths

By: - March 1, 2023

The U.S. offshore wind power industry is in its infancy, with just a handful of turbines installed along the Atlantic coast. But they’re already being blamed for the deaths of whales that have washed up on beaches in New Jersey, New York, Virginia and elsewhere. A Fox News story on Feb. 13 made strenuous attempts […]

The Blue Creek wind farm, which spans Paulding and Van Wert counties in Ohio, consists of 152 wind turbines with a total capacity of 304 megawatts. (Photo by Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

Across the country, a big backlash to new renewables is mounting 

By: - February 20, 2023

BUCYRUS, Ohio — In four terms as a county elected official in northern Ohio, it was the most contentious issue Doug Weisenauer had ever seen. The state legislature had newly empowered county governments to drastically restrict wind and solar power development, a process formerly overseen by the Ohio Power Siting Board, and the meetings of […]

A no trespassing sign is posted in front of a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) electrical substation on Jan. 26, 2022, in Petaluma, California. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning that domestic extremists have been developing specific plans to target electrical infrastructure in the United States. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Federal-state task force grapples with grid protection

By: - February 17, 2023

A federal task force wrestled with the costs and benefits of better shielding the nation’s tens of thousands of electric substations from a growing number of attacks, like a neo-Nazi plot the FBI says it foiled earlier this month in Maryland, another that knocked out power to thousands in North Carolina in December and more […]

How did renewables fare during Winter Storm Elliott

By: - January 30, 2023

A day after Christmas, as parts of the country were still digging out from Winter Storm Elliott, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, undeterred by the absence of much concrete data, already knew where to cast the blame for rolling blackouts implemented in parts of the South to keep the grid from collapsing.  “While there […]