Posts from — September 2011

On September 20, 2011, Brian Harrison, and W.G. “Bill” Stover, Jr., asserted through counsel their intention to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution at a September 23, 2011 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  Harrison is currently Chief Executive Officer of Solyndra, Inc. (“Solyndra”) and Stover is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  [Read more →]

On August 25, 2011, the Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (“ANPR”) related to its safety program for natural gas transmission pipelines.  The ANPR asks for comment on various questions concerning whether pipeline integrity management (“IM”) requirements and other regulatory requirements relating to system integrity should be enhanced.  Written comments are due by December 2, 2011, though parties have already requested additional time to submit comments. [Read more →]

On September 19, 2011, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) wrote a letter to Federal Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff requesting that he clarify the Commission’s plans to address threats to the nation’s bulk power system as a result of the pending Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) regulations.  Senator Murkowski’s September 19th letter builds upon the issues identified in her May 17, 2011 letter, and addresses the August 1, 2011 response of Chairman Wellinghoff. [Read more →]

On September 14, 2011, the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing to explore the impact of current and pending EPA utility regulations on electric system reliability.  In a somewhat unusual event, all five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) testified before the subcommittee about FERC’s role in studying the reliability impact of EPA regulations. [Read more →]

On September 9, 2011, FERC and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) announced they would work together to examine the September 8th power outage that affected more than 1 million customers in Southern California, Arizona and Northern Baja Mexico.  4,300 megawatts (“MW”) of load were lost when a technician removed a voltage-regulating capacitor bank from service in a North Gila, Arizona substation, and a 500kV transmission line from Phoenix into Southern California went out of service. [Read more →]