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Inflation Reduction Act
Offshore Winds Blowing in New Directions
In the aftermath of the offshore wind industry's recently completed annual get-together in Baltimore last week, there are many signs of success on the ocean blue's horizon. While those possibilities shine brightly in a number of key areas, the industry...
New York DEC Issues Draft Hydraulic Fracturing Regulations
Last week, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation released its draft regulations for hydraulic fracturing. These are based on the agency's revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement issued last month. The proposed regulations include a prohibition on drilling...
Despite Delay, EPA Still Set to Release GHG Draft Rule
As has been well reported, EPA will miss its September 30 deadline for releasing its draft rule on utility-focused greenhouse gas emissions. While a new deadline has not yet been announced for the rule, which focuses on reducing emissions from...
Luminant to Close Coal Plants Due to EPA Rule
Despite facing clear reliability problems because of record temperatures in Texas, Luminant said today they will close facilities to comply with EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which will cause the loss of approximately 500 jobs. The rule, which EPA released...
Interior Department Proposes Guidelines for Protecting Wildlife from Wind Energy Development
Fossil fuels are under fire from opponents of hydraulic fracturing in the gas drilling process or, in coal's case, everything from mountaintop mining to mercury emissions. And now with the crisis in Japan, nuclear power is facing new challenges. Of...
More Power to the Water
Power from water is again in the news as the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee moves forward on measures to increase hydropower and improve the impact of energy development on water resources. As well, the national trade group representing...
New Congress Expected to Meet Pent Up Demand for Energy Oversight
Pent up demand for oversight on both sides of the political aisle will drive a trend for renewed Congressional oversight in the upcoming term in 2011, notably in the energy and environmental sectors. In a recent video interview, Scott Segal...
Apex Oil: Environmental Cleanup Liability Survives Bankruptcy
In U.S. v. Apex Oil , a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit ruled 3-0 that EPA's cleanup injunction against the corporate successor to a chemical company was not discharged in Chapter 11 because the injunction does not create a...
Fate of Ocean Power Projects Requires FERC and Interior Cooperation
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.S. Forest...
Boucher-Dingell Bill Would Have FERC Run Cap-and-Trade Carbon Market
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...
Demand "Very Strong" in Nation's First Carbon Allowance Auction
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...
FERC Revisits Who in PJM Is Going to Pay for Transmission Upgrades
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...
CAIR Court Throws Eastern Utility Markets into Financial Tail-Spin
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in a July 11 order threw eastern power markets into financial chaos by vacating the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). ( North Carolina v...
Reductions of Power Plant Emissions on the Minds of State Regulators
Reducing power plant emissions seems to be the priority du jour , as several state regulatory agencies consider plans to comply with the EPA's new clean air interstate rule ("CAIR"). Passed in March of this year, CAIR permanently caps sulfur...