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Energy Law

Energy Legal Blog

Powered by the attorneys of Bracewell & Giuliani, Energy Legal Blog is your resource for updates and analysis on national and regional energy issues.

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Last Entry: March 21, 2011 at 10:59:17

Texas Commission Selects Plan to Deliver Wind Power from Competitive Renewable Energy Zones

Posted on July 28, 2008
The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT) recently selected one of the four transmission scenarios that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) proposed for bringing a total of 18,456 MW of wind power from West Texas and the Texas Panhandle...

CAIR Court Throws Eastern Utility Markets into Financial Tail-Spin

Posted on July 28, 2008
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in a July 11 order threw eastern power markets into financial chaos by vacating the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). (North Carolina v. EPA, No. 05-1244...

NYISO Asks FERC for Authority to Control Congestion and Loop Flow Around Lake Erie

Posted on July 24, 2008
Assailed by sharp increases in transmission congestion and loop flow in its Lake Erie region, New York's Independent System Operator (NYISO) in a July 21st emergency filing asked FERC to approve tariff revisions to prohibit scheduling on commonly used ? but not the most direct ? paths for wheeling power around Lake Erie between NYISO and neighboring RTOs...

British Columbia Launches North America's First Carbon Tax

Posted on July 11, 2008
On July 1, the British Columbia government implemented a consumer-based carbon tax on fossil fuels. The revenue neutral tax is the first of its kind in North America, and applies to all fossil fuels, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating oil...

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Severity Levels to Determine Penalties for Violating NERC Reliability Standards

Posted on July 10, 2008
In a June 19 order FERC approved with minor exceptions the Severity Levels that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation has proposed for violating requirements of its reliability standards. In an earlier order FERC requested NERC expedite development of Severity Levels to be used in setting penalties for reliability standard violations...

NYISO's Plan to Integrate Wind Power Wins FERC Approval

Posted on July 09, 2008
FERC issued an order June 17 approving the New York Independent System Operator's (NYISO) proposed tariff revisions intended to accommodate wind generating resources in its day-ahead and real-time energy markets. One revision increases the amount of intermittent renewable capacity eligible for special market rules from 1,000 MW to 3,300 MW; in effect, this would increase the amount of intermittent renewable resources eligible for an exemption from persistent under-generation charges...

WestConnect Utilities Experiment to Eliminate Rate Pancaking in Southwest

Posted on June 30, 2008
Eight WestConnect utilities, including Arizona Public Service Company, El Paso Electric, Nevada Power, Public Service Company of Colorado, Public Service Company of New Mexico, Southwest Transmission Cooperative, Tri-State, Tucson Electric Power, and WAPA, petitioned FERC on June 10 for guidance on a proposed two-year experimental transmission pricing initiative that would eliminate rate pancaking in the Southwest...

Divided Supreme Court Stirs Ashes of the 2000-01 California Energy Market Conflagration

Posted on June 28, 2008
A divided US Supreme Court in June 26 opinions argued over the meaning and existence of the eponymously named, half-century-old Mobile-Sierra doctrine. Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc. v. Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County ruled on consolidated buyer challenges to the prices in long-term wholesale energy contracts entered during the 2000-01 western energy market meltdown...

Wisconsin Power & Light Offers Emission-Saving Goodies to Make New Coal Plant Proposal Palatable

Posted on June 25, 2008
In an effort to counter opponents of its proposal to expand an existing coal-fired generating station by 300 MW, Wisconsin Power & Light (WP&L) has offered to take several steps to offset the increased greenhouse-gas emissions that would result from the expanded plant's operation...

ERCOT Imposes New Price Controls

Posted on June 23, 2008
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reduced its shadow price cap from $5,600 to $5,000/MWh and collared the market-clearing price for energy (MCPE) between a cap of $2,250/MWh and an floor of -$1,000/MWh. These price controls, which took effect on June 18, 2008, are designed to prevent the MCPE from rising above the current offer cap for balancing energy services of $2,250/MWh...

Michigan Legislators Consider State RPS, Rolling Back Electric Choice

Posted on June 23, 2008
The Michigan Legislature currently is considering legislation that would enact a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and that would limit electric choice in the state. At issue are three bills that have been passed by the state's House of Representatives and are now under Senate consideration...

San Francisco to Fund Nation's Largest Municipal Solar Program

Posted on June 20, 2008
The City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors on June 10, 2008, approved a program that will create a fund to provide rebates for residents and businesses that install solar power systems. Under the Solar Energy Incentive Program, the nation's largest municipal solar program, residents could receive between $3,000 and $6,000 for photovoltaic systems...

Amaranth Court Explicates Elements of Attempted Price Manipulation under Commodity Exchange Act

Posted on June 13, 2008
In a May 21 opinion US District Court Judge Denny Chin denied defendants Amaranth Advisors' and natural gas trader Brian Hunter?s motion to dismiss the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission?s (CFTC) complaint against them alleging attempted price manipulation in violation of �13(a)(2) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA)...

First NERC Penalty Notices Suggest Focus on Enforcement

Posted on June 06, 2008
On June 4, 2008, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation made its first public announcement of its Notices of Penalty when it filed at FERC the first batch of proposed penalties for reliability standard violations. Most Notices of Penalty filed with FERC were for a zero penalty amount, however, Baltimore Gas & Electric and MidAmerican Energy Company received penalties of $180,000 and $75,000, respectively, for violations of the Transmission Vegetation Management Standard, FAC-003-1...

DOE Belatedly Files License Application with the NRC to Approve the Yucca Mountain Spent Nuclear Fuel Repository

Posted on June 05, 2008
On June 3, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) finally submitted its initial license application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) seeking construction authorization pursuant to 10 C.F.R. � 63.31 for a high-level radioactive waste repository at a geologic repository operations area at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nevada...

FERC Augments, Revamps Enforcement Guidance and Procedures

Posted on May 20, 2008
FERC has taken several steps to clarify its policies for conducting enforcement investigations, carrying out its authority to impose penalties on violators, and broadening the scope of issues to be covered by its ex parte rules and no-action letter procedures...

FERC Mostly Affirms Market-Based Rate Program

Posted on May 02, 2008
On April 21, FERC issued an order generally affirming its market-based rate program, promulgated last June in Order No. 697. FERC left many of its prior determinations in place, including much of the analysis sellers must provide in order to receive or maintain authority to sell electric energy, capacity, and/or ancillary services at market-based rates...

Bonneville Holding Transmission Open Season to Speed Interconnections

Posted on April 22, 2008
Transmission providers and customers alike are increasingly complaining about the lengthy queues for interconnecting to the transmission grid. Scores of generator projects sign up for interconnection service, which is then delayed for years while the transmission provider conducts an array of studies...

ERCOT Identifies Scenarios for Texas Wind Transmission

Posted on April 21, 2008
Texas Senate Bill 20 (2005) directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), in consultation with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), to designate Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) and develop transmission plans for areas in Texas with significant renewable resource potential and developer commitment to facilitate new electricity generation from renewable resources...

Too Much Adieu about Mobile-Sierra?

Posted on April 11, 2008
Did a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit bid adieu to the half century-old Mobile Sierra doctrine on contract stability when it otherwise affirmed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of a multi-party settlement that phases in a Forward Capacity Market in New England? Notwithstanding alarms to the contrary, it did not...

FERC Blesses Midwest ISO Plan for Resource Adequacy

Posted on March 31, 2008
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has conditionally accepted a Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (Midwest ISO) plan for ensuring long-term resource adequacy in the RTO?s 15-state territory. Most other RTOs and ISOs have spent years grappling with how to ensure sufficient capacity is available to meet peak demand, and contentious FERC proceedings have led to different market models in NYISO, PJM, and ISO-NE...

Standards of Conduct Proposal Retreats from Structural to Functional Separation

Posted on March 28, 2008
A recent FERC Standard of Conduct rulemaking proposal retreats from its Order 2004 expansion of the standards of conduct, expressly finding that expansion too complex and unworkable. FERC proposes a return to its 1990s vintage functional separation model of Order 497 (natural gas) and Order 889 (electric power), eliminating both Order 2004's concept of "Energy Affiliates" and its emphasis on corporate separation...

ERCOT blames inaccurate wind predictions for February emergency event

Posted on March 26, 2008
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) recently released its Operations Report to explain why it was forced to cut electric supply to interruptible customers on February 26, 2008. The emergency event was caused largely by the convergence of the normal rapid load growth that occurs around 6:00 p...

DC Circuit Orders Immediate Tightening of Mercury Control Rules

Posted on March 25, 2008
On March 21, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made clear that its February 8, 2008 order mandating a return to tighter mercury control rules on coal-fired power plants must go into effect immediately...

CAISO Says It Will Announce MRTU Start in July

Posted on March 14, 2008
It is still unclear when the California Independent System Operator's long-awaited Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade (MRTU) will take effect, but the CAISO recently suggested it will announce the startup date in July 2008. Ever since the California energy crisis, the CAISO has worked on designing and implementing a new wholesale power market with features such as locational marginal pricing, financial transmission rights (called congestion revenue rights), and a day-ahead market energy market...

FERC Proposes Sundry Changes to Organized Power Market Rules

Posted on March 07, 2008
In a new rulemaking, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has resisted pressure from various groups to examine the foundations of organized wholesale power markets administered by RTOs and ISOs, and instead proposes various tweaks to the rules in these markets...

Southern California Edison Asks FERC to Step into Arizona Transmission Siting Dispute

Posted on March 06, 2008
In the first test of the "backstop" transmission siting authority given to FERC in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), Southern California Edison (SCE) recently discussed with FERC staff the siting of a 230-mile, 500 kV transmission line from the Palo Verde nuclear plant near Phoenix, Arizona to Devers, California, near Palm Springs (known as the Palo Verde-Devers II Line)...

FERC Takes Action to Prevent Cross-Subsidization between Affiliates

Posted on March 04, 2008
FERC continues to tweak its rules regarding mergers and acquisitions under section 203 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), issuing new regulations that impose restrictions on affiliate transactions between certain public utilities and their unregulated affiliates...

FERC Orders Review of Sellers Using WSPP Agreement Demand Charge in Markets where They Lack Market-Based Rate Authority

Posted on February 28, 2008
Last week, following an investigation under Federal Power Act section 206, FERC issued an order finding it is unjust and unreasonable to allow power sellers to keep using the WSPP-wide "up to" demand charge as a ceiling rate in markets where the seller does not have market-based rate authority, unless the seller can justify that rate based on its own costs...

Department of Energy Pulls Plug on FutureGen Program

Posted on February 05, 2008
The Department of Energy has cancelled the FutureGen project in which the DOE and a coalition of energy industry companies would have constructed a nearly emissions-free, coal-fired generator. The futuristic project involved carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) underground as part of an integrated gasification combined cycle 275 MW plant producing both electric power and hydrogen...

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