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Energy Law

Energy Legal Blog

Powered by the attorneys of Bracewell & Giuliani, Energy Legal Blog is your resource for updates and analysis on national and regional energy issues.

Post Frequency: 2/day

Last Entry: March 21, 2011 at 10:59:17

BOEMRE Releases Offshore Interim Rule and New Safety Regulations

Posted on October 05, 2010
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) has released fact sheets for two new rules that impact offshore drilling: the Drilling Safety Rule and the Workplace Safety Rule. The announcement came on September 30, 2010...

EPA Issues Proposed SIP Call to Shore Up GHG Permitting for Stationary Sources

Posted on September 28, 2010
On January 2, 2011, EPA will for the first time regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources. This comes as a result of a series of regulatory developments during the past year, culminating with EPA’s regulation of GHG emissions from light-duty vehicles, which becomes effective on January 2, triggering GHG regulatory requirements for stationary sources [...

Fracking Regulation Debate Intensifies As EPA?s Final Public Hearings Come to a Close

Posted on September 21, 2010
Under Congressional mandate, EPA has just concluded a series of public hearings as part of its hydraulic fracturing study. While the September 28 deadline for public comments is right around the corner, the study is not due to be delivered to Congress until 2012...

FERC Modifies Penalty Guidelines to Dampen Industry Ire

Posted on September 17, 2010
FERC announced September 16 its approval of a modified version of its proposed Penalty Guidelines. This approval comes after months of fielding and reviewing industry comments against its original proposal, which would have imposed standards and guidelines on the penalties that the agency could impose for violations of its regulations and policies...

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State Government Investigation of Propane Odorization Sets Stage for More Legal, PR and Regulatory Challenges

Posted on September 10, 2010
An Illinois-based gas distributor announced yesterday that propane deliveries to at least 12 states may have lacked odorants that normally alert homeowners to possible gas leaks. The announcement comes on the heels of a recently announced state government investigation...

To Regulate or Not to Regulate Demand Response, Asks Maryland PSC

Posted on August 31, 2010
The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) recently convened a proceeding to investigate whether to begin regulating providers of demand response services as electricity suppliers. To participate in the proceeding, interventions must be made with the PSC by September 2 and comments submitted by September 30...

A Divided CFTC Flexes Muscles With $12 Million ConAgra Civil Penalty

Posted on August 26, 2010
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order August 16 approving a settlement resolving allegations that ConAgra Trade Group, Inc. caused a non-bona fide price to be reported for a NYMEX spot month crude oil futures contract in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA)...

DC Circuit Affirms FERC On Maintaining Price Caps On Gas Pipeline Capacity Sales

Posted on August 23, 2010
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has upheld FERC’s decision to remove price ceilings on short term (one year or less) capacity releases by shippers on natural gas pipelines, while maintaining price ceilings on capacity sales by the pipelines themselves...

Rate Base, but no Tracker, for Maryland Smart Grid Program Costs

Posted on August 17, 2010
Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E) won Maryland PSC approval late Friday for an $833 million smart grid plan pursuant to which it will install 3,000 smart meter devices per day through 2014. Without timely PSC approval, BG&E risked losing approximately $200 million in Department of Energy subsidies to implement the plan...

FERC Announces Order Banning Nonjurisdictional Pipeline Transactions

Posted on August 06, 2010
Recently, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced a decision under which it will have broader regulatory power over buy-sell transactions on small pipelines. The unexpected decision, stemming from a case involving Arizona Public Service Co...

FERC?s Feed-in Tariff Order Addresses State/Federal Conflict in Renewables Area

Posted on August 04, 2010
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) recently determined in a case of first impression that states have limited authority to implement feed-in tariff programs, which generally seek to encourage “green” energy. For energy service companies and energy sellers seeking to take advantage of these programs, the order potentially dampens the prospects for feed-in tariffs to [...

Four RTO Electricity Contracts Found to Provide Significant Price Discovery

Posted on July 23, 2010
After designating two bilateral Mid-Columbia (Mid-C) electricity contracts traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) as significant price discovery contracts (SPDC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in July 9th orders, designated four additional ICE electricity contracts used in organized Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) markets as SPDCs...

Monthly Mid-C Electricity Contracts Found to Provide Significant Price Discovery

Posted on July 23, 2010
In June 25th Orders, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for the first time designated two monthly electricity contracts traded at the Mid-Columbia (Mid-C) hub on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) - the Mid-C Financial Peak (MDC) and Mid-C Financial Off-Peak (OMC) - as significant price discovery contracts (SPDC) under §2(h)(7) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA)...

Pennsylvania Legislature Expresses Intention to Enact Natural Gas Severance Tax

Posted on July 16, 2010
In connection with the completion of the 2010-2011 budget for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the General Assembly has expressed its intention to pass legislation imposing a severance tax on the extraction of natural gas. The structure and rate of the tax remains uncertain, but it is expected that Pennsylvania law makers will negotiate the scope [...

Rulemaking Promises to Complete Open Access, But Road Forward May Be Bumpy

Posted on June 29, 2010
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on June 17 proposed a rulemaking that, if implemented, has the potential to complete the opening of the transmission grid, an undertaking that began fourteen years ago. Earlier reforms, starting with FERC?s Order No...

FERC Seeks Input on Rate Policies for New Electric-Storage Technologies

Posted on June 15, 2010
FERC?s Office of Energy Policy and Innovation (OEPI) last week requested comments regarding rate policies, as well as accounting and financial reporting requirements, for new electric-storage technologies such as flywheels and chemical batteries. OEPI?s goal is to ?better understand the various ways electric storage can be used, where each of those uses would fall within [...

FERC Moves to Raise WECC Spot-Market Price Cap to Match CAISO Cap

Posted on May 25, 2010
FERC last week launched an effort to raise the price cap in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) spot power markets from $400/MWh to $750/MWh, which would align it with the bid cap in place in the California Independent System Operator Corporation (CAISO) spot markets...

CFTC Expands Regulation of Energy Contracts Through SPDC Authority

Posted on May 17, 2010
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) voted unanimously April 27 to designate seven natural gas contracts traded on the Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) as “significant price discovery contracts,” or SPDCs. These actions represent the U...

EPA Targets Refineries, Power Facilities, Large Sources in GHG Permit Tailoring Rule

Posted on May 16, 2010
On May 13, 2010, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its final tailoring rule for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that determines which stationary sources need to obtain GHG permits. The Clean Air Act (CAA) expressly imposes a requirement that stationary sources with emissions that exceed either 100 or 250 tons per year (depending [...

D.C. Circuit Casts Doubt on FERC?s Policy of Netting Station Power Costs

Posted on May 05, 2010
The D.C. Circuit threw into doubt FERC’s station-power policies with a May 4, 2010 ruling, holding that FERC has not explained adequately its authority to prevent states from imposing retail-delivery or other charges for power that generators use for their heating, lighting, air conditioning and office equipment purposes?called “station power”?when that power is deemed to [...

FERC Moves to End Price Cap on Transmission Reassignments

Posted on May 04, 2010
FERC proposed on April 29 to permanently lift the price cap on rates for reassignments of transmission capacity by wholesale transmission customers, following an April 15 study by FERC staff that found a temporary removal of the price cap had not led to any problems or price spikes...

Competition Thickens for Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline

Posted on April 28, 2010
An open-season plan for an Alaskan natural gas transportation was proposed to FERC April 7, 2010, by the Denali-The Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC (Denali-Alaska), owned by affiliates of BP America and ConocoPhillips Co. The plan seeks to obtain binding commitments for the acquisition of initial capacity...

California Regulators Vacillate on Rules for Use of Newly Minted Tradable REC Markets

Posted on April 23, 2010
One month after the California PUC (CPUC) in a March 11 order authorized the use of a new form of renewable energy certificate ? the tradable renewable energy certificate (TREC) ? CPUC Chairman Peevey announced that the agency may consider scrapping the program altogether...

Federal Stimulus Funding Fuels DOE Loan Guarantee Program

Posted on May 06, 2009
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) appropriated $6 billion to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program to support loan guarantees of up to $60 billion for renewable energy and electric power transmission projects...

DOE ARRA Funds Begin Roll Out

Posted on April 17, 2009
As we enter 2Q09, entities across all sectors of the energy industry are growing anxious to see how?and when?federal agencies will open the spigot on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds. For its part, the Energy Department answered in two requests for proposals...

White House OMB Clears Way for EPA's Proposed Endangerment Finding on Greenhouse Gases

Posted on April 16, 2009
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed Monday its review of EPA's proposed finding under the Clean Air Act that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) endanger public health and welfare and concluded that the so-called "endangerment finding" will not in itself significantly affect the economy...

California ISO Launches Long-Awaited New Market

Posted on April 03, 2009
After protracted delays, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) launched operations in its long-awaited, new wholesale market on April 1, 2009. The ISO touted its new "Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade" (MRTU) market as making the wholesale power grid in California "more high-tech, friendlier to diverse resources, and sending key signals for when and where to expand infrastructure...

Amaranth Calls FERC's Bluff in Settlement Rejection

Posted on March 27, 2009
On March 16, 2009, Amaranth Advisors asked FERC to reconsider its earlier order rejecting the settlement that it had reached with the FERC Staff. As previously reported, FERC rejected the uncontested settlement agreement with a simple statement that read: ""[h]aving considered the gravity of the alleged violations, the potential remedies for those violations if proven to have occurred, and the remedies offered in the Settlement, the Commission concludes that the settlement is not in the public interest and hereby rejects it...

Stricken Retroactive California Rate Likely Dooms Comparably Assessed Midwest Charge

Posted on March 27, 2009
The writing appears to be on the wall for FERC?s contested decision to tag retroactively financial-only traders in the Midwest ISO (MISO) with past Revenue Sufficiency Guarantee (RSG) charges. The writing on the wall comes in the form of a February 27 decision of a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in City of Anaheim v...

FERC Joins State Regulators to Champion Smart Grid Policy

Posted on March 27, 2009
In the hopes of accelerating development of a "smart" electric transmission grid, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on March 19, 2009, proposed a policy that will favor and incentivize investments in Smart Grid technology, which FERC believes will advance the efficiency, security, reliability, and interoperability of the electrical grid...

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