Posts from — March 2009

On March 19, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued its third order on rehearing (“Order No. 890-C”) regarding its open access transmission reform rule, Order No. 890, in order to clarify the calculation of available transfer capability (“ATC”). [Read more →]

Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) “exceptional events rule,” which allows data recorded during unusually strong storms or natural disasters to be excluded when determining whether an area violates federal air quality standards. [Read more →]

On March 19, 2009, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) to approve six Modeling, Data and Analysis (“MOD”) Reliability Standards that would require certain users, owners and operators of the transmission system to develop consistent methodologies for the calculation of ATC. [Read more →]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has reached a proposed determination regarding whether or not greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions endanger public health, public welfare, or both. Not yet published, EPA’s proposed “endangerment finding” was submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) on Friday, March 20th, and is currently undergoing an inter-agency review led by the OMB. [Read more →]

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s energy subcommittee released new legislation, authored by the subcommittee’s chairman, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), to increase FERC’s authority over market manipulation. [Read more →]