The U.S. Congress continues to debate proposals that would mandate that a set amount of the nation’s electricity come from renewable energy sources such as wind, the sun, or biomass.…
Legal & Regulatory
FERC, energy markets, reliability, natural gas delivery
A utility executive responsible for procuring renewable power recently lamented that, at the time of contract execution, renewable “projects” are typically at a very preliminary stage of development, offering scant…
This May, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) rejected a proposal by Southern California Edison (SCE) to build Devers-Palo Verde No. 2 (DPV2)—a 230-mile-long, high-voltage transmission line connecting California and Arizona.…
While elected officials in Washington debate the politics of climate change, state legislators and regulators have been busy putting in place programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For the most…
Congress's enactment of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) triggered a revolution in the development and construction of power plants. PURPA's creation of an independent class of…
Historically, states have delegated responsibility for establishing and implementing their energy policy to a public utilities commission (PUC). During most of the 20th century, state PUCs operated with relatively…
State policy makers are characteristically reluctant to recognize that they have advanced a policy as far as they can, and that they must cede some control to fully realize…
The debate over retail choice has resurfaced, triggering in the minds of many consumer advocates California's failed deregulation attempt and its fallout—rolling blackouts, bankrupt utilities, and government bailouts with…
Almost half of U.S. states now insist that their investor-owned electric utilities serve a specified percentage of their load with electricity from renewable resources by a date certain. Utilities struggling…
The financing of power generation projects increasingly depends on the execution of a long-term power-purchase agreement (PPA). A common prerequisite for considering a PPA to be "effective" is a "final…