Legal & Regulatory

Thirteen states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the recently finalized Clean Water Rule, which they say illegally puts the federal government in charge of a majority of water and land resources in the U.S.  North Dakota, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, […]

Wind is no longer a niche alternative energy industry, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) CEO Tom Kiernan told attendees at WINDPOWER 2015.  Despite policy hurdles, the wind sector has seen exponential growth and formidable cost reductions; it has the government’s endorsement for a low-carbon future; and it’s making up an ever-larger share of the nation’s […]

Voters in Colorado and stakeholders in Minnesota forced through unique managed generation transformation plans that paved the way for aggressive state renewable and clean energy standards—inadvertently pushing their utilities out in front of proposed and now actual federal policies. As the power industry struggles with rising costs of adaptation, many beleaguered executives are anxiously focusing […]

South Africa’s energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has pledged urgent resolution of the nation’s worsening power crisis. In her annual budget and policy speech in Cape Town on May 19, Joemat-Pettersson said the country was rushing to finalize its much-awaited Integrated Energy Plan, which, when approved by the Cabinet, will delineate South Africa’s future energy mix […]

The political impasse stalling investments in renewables in Australia was breached in mid-May after lawmakers reached an agreement to revise the renewable energy target (RET). After months of intense wrangling, the Coalition and Labor parties struck a deal to cut the RET to 33,000 GWh from the current 41,000 GWh. That figure is far more […]

For decades, renewable energy sources—primarily wind and solar—have been touted as the answer to continued reliance on fossil fuels. The technology has substantially improved, reducing unit costs, and state-imposed requirements have increased demand, enabling increased production to be sustainable. This expansion has come with the recognition that it also has environmental consequences. Wind farms threaten […]

In a 5–4 decision announced on June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) rules limiting mercury and other hazardous air pollutants released from power plants. In April 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), ruling in a 2–1 decision […]

A bill that would halt the Clean Power Plan’s compliance deadlines until litigation on the rule has been completed has passed the U.S. House of Representatives with a 247–180 vote.  The Ratepayer Protection Act (H.R. 2042) now goes to the Senate, where the GOP is working on a similar measure to suspend the Environmental Protection […]

Several Arizona and New Mexico–based utilities will be required to install pollution controls at the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant to curb sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) under a settlement reached with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department. The settlement involves the Arizona Public Service Co. (APS), the operator and primary […]