Legal & Regulatory

Working for Uncle Sam can be worthwhile or a life-sapping grind, depending on which agency employs you, according to a new survey by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Guess which agency ranked best. (Hint: It’s related to power.)

Does customer satisfaction play a meaningful role in guiding utility operations? Many utilities think it does, as do many regulators. The market apparently doesn’t. Data suggest that the jury is out on the question, and the intuitive answer may not match the empirical evidence.

In the 1990s, alarm bells were sounded because the construction of electric transmission infrastructure was not keeping pace with the United States’ rapidly increasing electric demand. More than 10 years later, despite considerable debate and the passage of new legislation, we continue to search for ways to get transmission built. However, it now looks as if 2009 may the year in which the stars finally align to fix the transmission system.

Nuclear loan guarantees in the 2005 Energy Policy Act have proven to be a failure: not just too little, but far too late.

North Dakota garnered most of the Department of Energy’s earmarks in March’s omnibus appropriations bill.

It’s not easy being a regulator as the nation faces several daunting energy challenges—integrating renewables, carbon constraints, reliability, and security into an elderly grid that is barely able to keep up with its current mission of moving power from generator to load.

President Obama promoted "green energy" as a signature theme in his presidential campaign. During his first weeks, he reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to renewable resources. In a radio address, he promised to double the nation’s alternative energy capacity within three years and to construct a 3,000-mile transmission grid to "convey this new energy from coast to coast."

Power plant managers are familiar with selective catalytic reduction (SCR), a technology to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides from fossil-fueled generating plants. Starting in 2010, SCR technology, using a urea reagent, will also be required on new diesel-powered vehicles in utility fleets, ranging from light-duty pickups to 18-wheelers.

With the U.S. economy currently in a free fall, some utility industry leaders and elected officials argue that carbon cap legislation should be put on hold while the country recovers financially. However, President Barack Obama has a different game plan.

A confluence of circumstances promised to make 2008 a transformative year for renewable energy in the U.S. States enacted additional, and more demanding, renewable portfolio standards, promoting accelerated and sustained development of "green" energy resources. Increasing concerns about global warming and climate change prompted some of this activity. However, the unprecedented escalation of oil prices to almost $150 a barrel (translating into prices at the pump in excess of $4) was the largest impetus for demands that this nation end its addiction to fossil fuels.