Posts from — December 2010

On December 6, 2010, the United States Supreme Court (“Supreme Court”) granted a petition from a group of electric utilities for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Second Circuit”) in Connecticut v. AEP.  [Read more →]

On December 8, 2010, the House Republican Conference ratified Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) as chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.  The GOP Steering Committee nominated him just one day earlier, beating out Joe Barton (TX), John Shimkus (IL), and Cliff Stearns (FL). [Read more →]

On December 7, 2010, AGL Resources Inc. (“AGL”) and Nicor Inc. (“Nicor”) announced that Nicor will merge with an AGL subsidiary to form one of the largest natural gas distribution companies in the United States. [Read more →]

As 2011 rapidly approaches, electric utilities face significant legal and regulatory uncertainty on a variety of fronts.  First, with respect to transmission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on transmission planning and cost allocation and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) so-called “MVP” filing, which socializes the costs of new transmission projects across the entire MISO region, both remain pending.  [Read more →]

On Friday November 19, 2010, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that James M. Woodason, a former department manager at Consolidated Edison of New York (“Con Edison”), pleaded guilty to charges of accepting and agreeing to accept $807,000 in bribes from industrial pipe supply vendors.  [Read more →]