Posts from — April 2009

This week, Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-MA) of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee held four days of legislative hearings on the discussion draft of “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” released March 31, 2009. [Read more →]

On April 20, 2009, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) claiming that unnamed power suppliers used a loophole in the Independent System Operator of New England’s (“ISO-NE”) market rules to receive $85.8 million in capacity payments while failing to deliver energy when called upon by ISO-NE. Blumenthal’s complaint asks the Commission to make the companies’ names public and to order them to disgorge their profits. [Read more →]

On Wednesday, FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff addressed a number of ongoing energy issues during a U.S. Energy Association forum, including his belief that renewable energy and demand-side management could significantly mitigate and perhaps eliminate the need for traditional baseload power plants. Additionally, Chairman Wellinghoff discussed the Commission’s ability to regulate carbon credit markets. [Read more →]

On April 16, FERC’s Office of Enforcement released its “2008 State of the Markets Report” on natural gas and electric market performance during the previous year. Generally, average electricity and natural gas prices in 2008 were substantially greater than prices in 2007 in almost every region of the United States. [Read more →]

On April 16, 2009, President Barack Obama and President Felipe Calderon announced that the U.S. and Mexico would strengthen cooperation to achieve a low carbon future and promote clean energy resources by establishing the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Framework on Clean Energy and Climate Change (“Framework”). Both Presidents agreed that the two nations need to work together to obtain the common goal of addressing global warming. [Read more →]