Posts from — January 2009

On Wednesday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina held that SO2 and NOx emissions from four of TVA’s coal-fired power plants constitute a public nuisance. Specifically, the court agreed with the claims made by the State of North Carolina that the pollution from TVA’s Bull Run, Kingston, John Sevier, and Widows Creek facilities “clouds its scenic vistas, poisons its wildlife, and sickens its people.” [Read more →]

On Thursday, FERC issued an order rejecting a contested settlement to give Kern River Gas Transmission Company (“Kern River”) a 12.5 percent return on equity (“ROE”) because it was excessive and would result in unjust and unreasonable rates. Instead, FERC determined that Kern River’s ROE should be 11.55 percent. [Read more →]

EPA issued a final rule this week intended to further clarify its policy on the scope of New Source Review (“NSR”), the program that requires a pre-construction permit for new plants or “major modifications” of existing plants. The EPA policy, known as “aggregation,” refers to the grouping of two projects into one for purposes of determining whether the combined effect of the two activities will result in a significant emissions increase that triggers the permitting requirements of NSR. [Read more →]

On December 23, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) upheld FERC’s interpretation of the term “markets” as it applies to qualifying facility (“QF”) purchase exemptions found in the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (“PURPA”). The Petitioners, the American Forest and Paper Association (“AFPA”), argued that the term means only competitive markets. [Read more →]

On Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued an order offering guidance (“Guidance Order”) on conducting compliance audits to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) and the eight regional entities (“Regional Entities”) with responsibility for enforcing reliability standards. The Guidance Order was released on the same day the Commission approved an audit report of SPP’s reliability functions. [Read more →]