Legal & Regulatory

With the ink barely dry on Version 4 of NERC’s critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards, a new iteration is on the way, bringing with it some major changes in the way the standards will work.

The potential of offshore wind generation in the U.S. is being held back by a regulatory no-man’s-land.

Is bigger better for the energy business? Says a veteran energy lawyer, it depends more on why and how a utility choose to grow. Unfortunately, few regulators are thinking much about it.

In February, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) yet again missed an important opportunity to correct structural flaws that have plagued the state’s wholesale generation market in the wake of the 2001 energy crisis.

Taking an activist stance in favor of unions,  the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that employers must continued to withdraw union dues from paychecks even after a collective bargaining agreement has expired. But another court ruling may place this NLRB decision—and many others—in doubt.

Attention to the potential risks of solar storms to the power sector continues, as the NRC issues a highly unusual grant to a citizen’s rulemaking petition on how solar storms could affect spent fuel powers at nuclear plants.

More and more electricity is generated by natural gas. This trend is likely to persist. Hydraulic fracturing technology is increasing domestic supplies and enabling natural gas prices to remain at historic lows.

Last October, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that it was seeking a record $470 million penalty against Barclays Bank for manipulating California energy markets for several years in the late 2000s. The amount includes a $435 million fine as well as disgorgement of $35 million in profits Barclays gained from allegedly illegal trading. In addition, FERC levied hefty fines against several individual Barclays traders.