Featured Articles

Energy Beneficiaries of Economic Stimulus Package

October 13, 2008 15:16

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...

Recent Articles

How to Regulate Emissions of Greenhouse Gases?

January 03, 2009 02:04

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...

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

December 22, 2008 22:45

In a December 19 decision 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 EPA violated the Clean Air Act when it adopted a final rule that would have lessened controls on emissions of...

FERC Approves First Hydrokinetic Installation at Existing Hydro Project

December 16, 2008 20:02

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...

FERC to Be Less Generous with Incentive Rates for Transmission Projects

December 05, 2008 22:19

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...

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

November 22, 2008 01:12

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).  In the Matter of Deseret Power...

Recent FERC Enforcement Efforts Reported

November 17, 2008 22:14

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...

Better Markets Through Demand Response, Forward Contracting and Accountability

October 27, 2008 23:48

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...

Fate of Ocean Power Projects Requires FERC and Interior Cooperation

October 22, 2008 21:50

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 Service for licensing...

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

October 21, 2008 20:54

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...