Legal & Regulatory

On May 1, President Obama announced his intention to nominate Cheryl A. LaFleur for a second term as commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). LaFleur was first nominated to serve as a member of FERC in 2010. She became the acting chairman in November 2013 following Jon Wellinghoff’s resignation. Her term is slated […]

Gas, wind, and solar are it for any new generation in North America for the next five to 10 years (with a few one-offs), speakers at this year’s Platts Global Power Markets conference agreed. The annual event for those involved in power project development, financing, and litigation was held in Las Vegas Apr. 7 to […]

Netherlands to Ban Financing of Coal Plants Abroad. The Netherlands on Mar. 24 joined an initiative of the U.S., the UK, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden to reach a global climate change agreement

Exelon Corp. and Pepco Holdings Inc. announced on April 30 that they have reached an agreement to combine the two companies. Assuming all approvals are received, Exelon will acquire Pepco in an all-cash deal valued at $6.83 billion, which represents a 24.7% premium to the volume-weighted average share price over the last 20 trading days […]

In a major ruling on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) authority to regulate power plant emissions across state lines under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had struck down the CSAPR in 2012, finding that the EPA had exceeded its […]

Energy Future Holdings Corp. (EFH)—the Dallas-based holding company whose portfolio includes Luminant and TXU Energy—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. With support of key financial stakeholders, the company reached an agreement on a restructuring plan that it says will reduce debt, lower annual interest costs, allow access to additional capital, and create a sustainable […]

A federal court on April 15 upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) February 2012-finalized Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), ruling in a 2–1 decision that the agency is not required to take costs into account when it promulgates rules that are “appropriate and necessary” to address hazards to public health. In the U.S. Court […]

Ten witnesses from federal and state regulatory agencies, a public power entity, environmental groups, and power companies today outlined a number of threats to the bulk power system’s reliability in a Senate hearing to assess whether enough was being done to keep the lights on. General measures to address day-to-day issues affecting reliability—such as tree […]

The German Cabinet on April 8 approved a list of changes that are intended to put the brakes on spiraling retail energy prices that have Germans paying some of the highest electricity bills in the world. The core of the changes outlined in the draft bill that must still go through the parliamentary process involves […]

In a letter to Department of Energy Inspector General Gregory Friedman, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) requested an investigation into sensitive information leaks suspected to have originated in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) offices. The letter—dated March 27—stated that “Recent reports in […]

When Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy testified at the House Appropriations subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies today, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) made it clear from the start that he would be at odds with her. “For years, it seems the EPA has worked hard to devise new regulations that are designed […]

Source: POWER During IHS CERAWeek in Houston in early March, POWER Editor Gail Reitenbach sat down with Heiner Markhoff, president and CEO of GE Power & Water’s Water & Process Technologies, to ask him about several issues of concern to power plants.  Though the “water/energy nexus” theme has gained prominence recently, Heiner Markhoff’s comments underscored […]

This has not been the best of times for state regulators trying to control the future of their regional power markets. In September, a federal court in Maryland shot down that state’s attempt to force the

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is calling for public comment and information on approaches to updating radiation protection standards for nuclear power operations. The standards have not been updated since they were originally issued in 1977. The agency issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Feb. 4 in the Federal Register and related fact […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week proposed to approve revisions to a Texas state plan to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state. If finalized, likely later this year, the EPA will rescind its Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that is currently in place and grant the state GHG permitting authority.  According to the […]

Mexico’s much-awaited constitutional energy reform, passed on Dec. 12 by the federal congress and a week later by the required majority of state congresses, could spark increased private participation in

EU’s Highest Court Says French Onshore Wind Tariff Is Illegal. The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) ruled on Dec. 19 that a French regulatory mechanism allowing network distributors—namely

Allowing nuclear generators to operate some of the existing 100 U.S. nuclear reactors longer than their 60-year licensed limit could help offset a potentially massive power supply gap that could ensue as those

Japan and South Korea, countries that depended heavily on nuclear power before the Fukushima catastrophe in 2011 (Figure 3), separately released draft long-term energy plans in December, both placing renewed

Approximately 150,000 plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are already on the road in the United States, according to various reports. These vehicles include relatively wallet-friendly PEV options like the

A year ago, on Feb. 12, 2013, President Obama issued Executive Order 13636, titled “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.” The Executive Order instructed the National Institute of Standards and

President Obama has nominated current Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Director of Enforcement Norman Bay to head the agency, upon confirmation, replacing Jon Wellinghoff, who left his post in November and jumping him over Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFleur. Bay’s nomination is the second to replace Wellinghoff, who left to join Portland, Ore., law firm Stoel […]

Oklahoma has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lawsuit that challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) authority to reject a state regional haze plan and replace it with a federal implementation plan (FIP). Last July, in a 2–1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld the EPA’s rejection of […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must issue a proposed revision of its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle D rules regulating coal combustion residuals no later than Dec. 19, 2014, under a consent decree reached between the agency and environmental groups that was filed in federal court today.  The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia […]

President Obama spoke briefly about energy in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, though he declared at the outset: “The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.” That statement rejected recently expressed concerns from 18 […]

Issuance of the revised final Waste Confidence Decision and Temporary Storage Rule will be delayed until at least early October, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced on Thursday.  The NRC cited “time lost” and a “lapse of appropriations” during the October 2013 government shutdown, which has forced the federal regulatory body to “reschedule several public […]

 The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new power plants violates the Energy Policy Act (EPACT) of 2005, a suit filed in federal court by the state of Nebraska alleges.  The state alleges, as have a number of Republican lawmakers, that the EPA relied on […]

The Democrat-controlled Colorado Senate on Jan. 15 blocked a bill that would have reversed the state’s controversial renewable energy mandate for rural electric cooperatives. Colorado has had a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) since 2004, when it became the first state in the U.S. to mandate a percentage of renewable generation in retail electricity sales, but […]

The EPA published the latest version of its new source performance standards (NSPS) for carbon pollution from new power plants in the Federal Register on Jan. 8, setting in motion a 60-day public comment period. The action stems from the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that defined greenhouse gases as an air […]

The controversial federal production tax credit (PTC) bestowed on new wind farms of $0.023/kWh for the first 10 years of their operation expired on Tuesday, but the impact of that policy lapse isn’t immediately clear. Originally enacted in 1992, the federal renewable electricity PTC has been renewed and expanded numerous times—most recently by the American […]