Energy Legal Blog: Energy Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Energy Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

EPA Proposes Nationwide Greenhouse Gas Reporting

Posted on March 24, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on March 10 a comprehensive national registry of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Under authority of the Clean Air Act, the registry will require a wide range of industrial GHG sources, including upstream producers of fossil fuels and industrial gases, manufacturers, electricity generators, and producers of chemicals, cement and metals, to monitor and report their GHG emissions...

FERC-DOI Signal Truce on Dispute over Renewable Projects on OCS

Posted on March 17, 2009
The US Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced an agreement in principal to resolve a longstanding inter-agency dispute over jurisdiction to regulate hydrokinetic power generation on the outer continental shelf (OCS)...

To Spur Investment in Transmission Lines, New FERC Policy Allows Merchant Transmission Developers to Pre-Subscribe "Anchor" Customers

Posted on February 24, 2009
In a policy shift intended to encourage the development of transmission lines for renewable power, on February 19, FERC issued an order allowing merchant transmission developers to set aside a portion of new lines' capacity for so-called "anchor" customers for an initial term of 25 years...

FERC Not Empowered to Overrule a State Denial of an Application to Site and Construct Electric Transmission

Posted on February 20, 2009
Congress did not in the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 confer on FERC federal "backstop" authority to overrule timely state decisions denying applications to site and construct proposed interstate transmission lines, a divided (2-1) panel of a U.S...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

FERC Rejects Amaranth Settlement

Posted on February 17, 2009
FERC issued an order February 12 denying approval of an uncontested settlement agreement negotiated between FERC Enforcement Staff and trader Amaranth Advisors. The settlement agreement was filed November 24 of last year and intended to resolve all the issues arising from the FERC's July 26 order demanding that Amaranth show cause why it should not be required to disgorge nearly $300 million allegedly garnered from market manipulation...

Despite Downturn, States Press Ahead with Renewable and Greenhouse Gas Initiatives

Posted on February 13, 2009
Despite the economic crash, a number of states are continuing to push ahead with various renewable energy and climate change initiatives. In the waning days of his tenure, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed the nation's first law authorizing the development of new clean coal facilities and mandating carbon sequestration in connection with electric generation...

Texas Commission Divvies Up Wind Power Transmission Development Rights

Posted on February 06, 2009
The Texas PUC finalized its proceeding to award development rights for the construction of as many as 2,900 miles of new transmission lines to carry wind-generated power. Wind resources are being developed primarily in western Texas, remote from urban centers in the rest of the state...

New FERC Acting Chairman ? Supporting the President's Green Energy Reforms

Posted on February 03, 2009
Consumer advocates and LNG opponents may take comfort in the recent appointment of Commission Jon Wellinghoff as the new acting FERC Chairman. As a Commissioner he has distinguished himself through a spate of dissents opposing rate incentives for transmission developers and opposing LNG projects, notably the Sparrow's Point and the Bradwood Landing projects...

Oregon Challenge to Conditional Licensing Could Have Broad Impacts for Project Developers

Posted on February 02, 2009
On January 27, the Oregon Attorney General (AG) filed a petition for review in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit challenging FERC's conditional approval of the proposed Bradwood Landing LNG facility. Although briefs have not yet been filed, it appears that this appeal will present an issue of first impression concerning FERC's conditional licensing of projects that have not yet completed all necessary environmental reviews...

FERC Successfully Defends "Hybrid" Transitional Markets in New England

Posted on January 27, 2009
In a big win for FERC and supporters of electricity markets, on January 23, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's challenge to New England's market design. The Attorney General and a group of New England industrial customers challenged FERC's decisions approving a temporary "hybrid" market design in New England, under which generators are compensated for sales into the market on different bases?some at regulated cost-based rates and others at market prices...

Interstate Air Pollution Rule Granted Temporary Stay of Execution

Posted on January 05, 2009
In the waning days of 2008 a three-judge panel of the US appeals court ended months of uncertainty surrounding the regulation of power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) when it ruled that the EPA?s Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) could remain in effect until the Agency develops a lawful alternative...

How to Regulate Emissions of Greenhouse Gases?

Posted on January 02, 2009
In a policy memorandum that the Obama administration will likely revisit, current EPA administrator Stephen Johnson announced December 18 that Clean Air Act (CAA) operating permits for new or modified power generating plants need not be conditioned on the developer implementing best available control technology (BACT) to reduce plant emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses that cause climate change...

Court Rules EPA Cannot Relax Strict Controls on Hazardous Air Emissions During Start-up, Shut-down and Malfunction

Posted on December 22, 2008
PIn a December 19 a href="http://energylegalblog.com/files/03-1219 Sierra Club v. EPA.pdf"decision/A of potentially broad applicability to fossil fuel-fired electric generators, a divided (2-1) panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the A href="http://www...

FERC Approves First Hydrokinetic Installation at Existing Hydro Project

Posted on December 16, 2008
In a December 13 order, FERC approved a hydrokinetic generator that City of Hastings, Minnesota proposes to install by April 2009 in the Mississippi River. Hydrokinetic projects generate electricity from waves or from the flow of water. Hastings proposed to suspend two 35-kW hydrokinetic from a floating barge in the tailrace of its existing 4...

FERC to Be Less Generous with Incentive Rates for Transmission Projects

Posted on December 05, 2008
At a time when investment wells are bone dry and credit unavailable, FERC ironically seems to have reversed earlier policies that liberally extended economic incentives to new transmission projects under FPA section 219 and Order No. 679. In a December 4, 2008 order, FERC denied Commonwealth Edison's (ComEd) petition asking the agency to declare that 22 transmission projects are eligible for rate incentives, even though each project had been approved in the PJM Interconnection's regional transmission expansion plan (RTEP) process...

Deseret Decision Regarding CO2 Avoids the Key Question and Creates Significant Uncertainty

Posted on November 21, 2008
In a noteworthy Clean Air Act decision in the wake of Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) avoided the key question of whether carbon dioxide (CO2) is currently "subject to regulation" under the Clean Air Act (Act)...

Recent FERC Enforcement Efforts Reported

Posted on November 17, 2008
FERC's Office of Enforcement on November 6 released its "2008 Report on Enforcement," an annual report detailing FERC's enforcement program during the preceding fiscal year ending September 30. This report provides a statistical analysis of FERC's enforcement activities, including receipts of company self-reports and investigations opened by FERC staff...

Better Markets Through Demand Response, Forward Contracting and Accountability

Posted on October 27, 2008
FERC issued a final rule October 17 to strengthen competition in organized wholesale electric markets. The rule (generally consistent with the proposed rule FERC issued last February) seeks to improve wholesale markets by establishing a more forceful role for demand response and long-term contracts in organized markets, strengthening market monitoring, and improving the responsiveness of regional transmission organizations' (RTO) and independent system operators' (ISO) to their customers...

Fate of Ocean Power Projects Requires FERC and Interior Cooperation

Posted on October 22, 2008
Jurisdictional jockeying between FERC and the Department of Interior threatens development of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) ocean power projects. The issue calls out for agency cooperation and possibly an interagency agreement similar to that between FERC and the U...

Employee Function Replaces Corporate Separation as Cornerstone of FERC's New Standards of Conduct

Posted on October 21, 2008
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission adopted revised Standards of Conduct (Standards of Conduct) for Transmission Providers ? both natural gas pipelines and electric transmission systems ? in its October 16 Order No. 717. The single largest change from earlier SC is replacement of corporate separation requirement adopted in 2003 with an ?employee functional approach? that dates back to the original 1988 natural gas Standards of Conduct and the 1996 electric transmission Standards of Conduct...

Boucher-Dingell Bill Would Have FERC Run Cap-and-Trade Carbon Market

Posted on October 21, 2008
If the "discussion draft" carbon cap-and-trade bill recently released by Congressmen John Dingell (D-MI) and Rick Boucher (D-VA) becomes law, then FERC would run the carbon market. Within FERC, the bill would create a new Office of Carbon Market Oversight possessing jurisdiction over brokers, dealers and certain others involved in carbon trading...

FERC Issues Policy Statement on Compliance

Posted on October 21, 2008
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revised its Policy Statement on Compliance October 16. The revision posits four factors FERC will take into account when considering whether to reduce or eliminate civil penalties for violations: (1) The role of senior management in fostering compliance; (2) Effective preventative measures to ensure compliance; (3) Prompt detection, cessation, and reporting of violations; and (4) Remediation efforts...

Energy Beneficiaries of Economic Stimulus Package

Posted on October 13, 2008
The Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 embedded in the economic stimulus legislation (H.R. 1424) that President Bush signed into law on October 3, 2008, provides nearly $17 billion in various tax credits to promote clean power generation technologies, alternative fuels, renewable energy and energy efficiency...

GAO Report Urges FERC to Be More Specific on Costs, Benefits of RTO Membership

Posted on October 09, 2008
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report to Congress on September 26 urging FERC to take additional steps to analyze the benefits and performance of the Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) that manage regional transmission grids. FERC's development of RTOs has been controversial from the beginning, with many arguing that they ultimately increase electricity prices...

Demand ?Very Strong? in Nation's First Carbon Allowance Auction

Posted on October 03, 2008
Despite the market turmoil and liquidity concerns on Wall Street in recent weeks, the nation's first government-run auction of carbon dioxide emissions allowances met with "very strong demand," according to the coalition of ten states, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiate (RGGI), that is implementing a mandatory carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States...

PJM?s RPM Dodges Buyers' Bullets However Well Aimed

Posted on September 23, 2008
FERC stopped a rebellion of PJM Interconnection power buyers in a September 19 order that rejected their complaint against PJM's reliability pricing model (RPM) capacity obligation and auction. A motley crew of buyers and their representatives ? coops, state commissions, the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, industrial and consumer advocates ? had argued that recent phase-in auctions of capacity through the 2009-2010 delivery period occurred in a non-competitive market and produced unjust and unreasonable prices for that capacity...

FERC Seeks Industry Input on Uniform Definition of "Affiliate"

Posted on September 08, 2008
Seeking to clear up an apparent inconsistency in the definition of an "affiliate" in its regulations, on August 29 FERC issued an order asking for the industry's input on a uniform definition of "affiliate" for purposes of the agency'smarket-based rate program...

FERC Revisits Who in PJM Is Going to Pay for Transmission Upgrades

Posted on September 03, 2008
FERC conditionally approved a contested settlement on the allocation of transmission owner costs for projects approved through the regional transmission expansion plan (RTEP) of PJM Interconnection, LLC. The settlement directs how PJM will allocate the transmission owners? costs of RTEP upgrades that operate below 500 kV among PJM members through a "beneficiary pays" approach...

FERC Authorizes NYISO to Halt Circuitous Scheduling Around Lake Erie

Posted on August 27, 2008
On August 21, FERC issued an order accepting the New York ISO's (NYISO) emergency revisions to its tariff to prohibit certain scheduling practices around Lake Erie. In its order, FERC approved the NYISO's use of temporary action to reduce unscheduled power flows and directed that NYISO continue to work with market participants, neighboring ISOs, and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop longer-term solutions...

PG&E Announces Plans to Buy 800 MW of Solar Power

Posted on August 19, 2008
One of the largest utilities in California, Pacific Gas and Electric Company ("PG&E"), has signed two contracts to purchase up to 800 MW of power from two new solar plants that will be constructed by photovoltaic (PV) systems manufacturers, OptiSolar, Inc...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Update on AILF's Legal Action Center Visa Bulletin Litigation (Updated 7/10/07)
The following is the latest update from AILF regarding its pening ...

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center Legislative Forecast
The ILRC Forecast on Immigration ReformJudith Golub, Executive Dir...

The Christian Legal Society and "discrimation": Response to Susan
In response to Susan's post, I'm inclined to think that, yes, the ...

Stacy Scnheider Legal Commentator Apprentice

Catholic Legal Theory and life and death
Tom Berg’s question regarding the propriety or not of capital pu...