Posts from — September 2010

On September 21, 2010, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced the Renewable Electricity Promotion Act, a stand alone renewable energy standard (“RES”) bill.  The bill will require utilities to acquire 3 percent of their power from renewable resources beginning in 2012, and the requirement will increase up to 15 percent by 2021.  [Read more →]

On September 20, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued a Final Rule, Promoting a Competitive Market for Capacity Reassignment.  This Order No. 739 lifts the price cap for all electric transmission customers reassigning transmission capacity, and the new rule is an attempt to develop a market for capacity reassignment in lieu of direct acquisitions of capacity from a transmission owner.  [Read more →]

On September 16, 2010, FERC rejected the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) request for rehearing and/or clarification of a March 18, 2010 directive to NERC to propose revisions to its Rules of Procedure, among other items. (see March 19, 2010 edition of the WER) [Read more →]

On September 9, 2010, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) announced more than $37 million in funding to 27 projects that will help develop marine and hydrokinetic (“MHK”) technologies.  This is the largest grant ever given to MHK technologies which generate power from the ocean, rivers, and streams. [Read more →]

On Friday, September 10, 2010, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued a notice that the agency had decided not to issue a one-year exemption as grandfathered relief for bilateral exempt commodity swaps (“bilateral swaps”) operating under the current exemption pursuant to the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”).  The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) as implemented, deletes this exemption provision from the CEA as of July 15, 2011, but the Dodd-Frank Act did give the CFTC the discretion to grant grandfather relief to parties. [Read more →]