Posts from — September 2011

On September 15, 2011, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) proposing to approve revisions to eight critical infrastructure protection (“CIP”) reliability standards, CIP-002-4 through CIP-009-4, which were developed and submitted to the Commission by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”).  [Read more →]

On September 15, 2011, FERC issued two final rules approving NERC’s interpretation of the Transmission Operations Reliability Standard, TOP-001-1, and the Transmission Planning Reliability Standard, TPL-002-0. [Read more →]

Citing a goal of “reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty,” the Obama Administration on September 2 instructed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to withdraw its proposal to strengthen national ambient air quality standards for ozone.  The surprise move was the first time President Obama explicitly and completely rejected an EPA regulation, creating a firestorm of criticism from environmentalists and key Democrats and praise from industry groups and Republicans. [Read more →]

On August 29, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued an order initiating review of a Notice of Penalty (“NOP”) issued by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) on July 28, 2011, against Southwestern Power Administration (“SWPA”) for violating Reliability Standards Requirements for Critical Infrastructure Protection.  SWPA and the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) filed an application for review with FERC arguing that NERC lacks the statutory authority to assess monetary penalties against a federal agency, and thus the NOP against SWPA must be dismissed. [Read more →]

Several attorneys from the Troutman Sanders LLP Atlanta-based Environmental and Natural Resources Practice Group were recently published in the July/August 2011 edition of EEI’s Electric Perspectives magazine regarding Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) regulatory inspections.  Co-authored by Douglas Henderson, Margaret Campbell, Hollister Hill and Randy Brogdon, the article outlines the steps that companies need to take to be well-prepared should the EPA show up for a power plant inspection.  The article provides a useful checklist that companies can use to make sure that their plants are inspection-ready as well as a list of questions that will likely be asked by EPA inspectors.  [Read more →]