EPA's Clean Power Plan
Charting a Path Forward
With respect to the Clean Power Plan, the question is whether EPA will address the major issues and reinforce its positions in advance of the anticipated legal challenges.
Energy Policy & Legislation
Grid Reform to Date
How the feds opened the supply side.
The sheer scale of growth put a ‘stake through the heart’ of the old view.
Open-Access Chronicles: The Backstory Behind Electric Restructuring
Part 1: Sharks, Whales and Minnows
In 1995, the pitched battle that played out between Peco and PPL became the functional equivalent of an advertising blitz in support of electricity restructuring, and planted the seeds for Enron to get involved in utility regulation.
Rooftop Solar 2.0
Hawaii and California grapple over net energy metering.
While the underlying questions in each state regarding net energy metering are much the same, the two PUC's will approach the issue from different perspectives.
High Stakes at the High Court
U.S. Supreme Court to decide demand response case.
Cost-conscious commercial and industrial customers may be oblivious to the legal issues surrounding their energy choices, but their demand response providers are not. The U.S. Supreme Court will now decide whether those services will be regulated by the federal government or state utility commissions.
The Future History of Tomorrow's Energy Network
A look back from year 2050 – on what we thought we once knew.
A decentralized form of electricity generation and delivery is becoming commonplace – and the question is whether utilities are doing all they can to prepare.
Enron's Lessons
Are regulators managing market manipulation?
Some will stray from ethical behavior. But markets must be regulated to maintain confidence.
Market Manipulation: Staying a Step Ahead
Law, compliance, and case management – plus the blurred boundary between FERC and CFTC.
In the aftermath of 2000-2001 energy crisis, Congress provided federal regulators more authority to crack down on fraud. To do so, FERC must show that the actor possessed the requisite state of mind and establish a connection between the alleged manipulative action and an interstate transportation or sale for resale of natural gas or electricity.
EPA, NERC and Reliability
Expect more analysis – more scenarios, more detail – as state compliance plans become better known.
As things stand today, even without the Clean Power Plan, we expect to see the retirement of more than 6 percent of North America’s generation capacity by 2030.
Splitting the Difference on Coal Ash
Industry wins exemption for ‘beneficial use’ but faces tighter rules on impoundments and landfills.
The EPA only has limited authority to implement and enforce a Subtitle D nonhazardous waste rule, like the coal combustion residuals rule. As a result, EPA had to promulgate the standards as “minimum federal criteria” that states are encouraged to adopt as part of their Subtitle D programs (but EPA cannot actually require states to adopt or implement these requirements.) Nonetheless, the new minimum criteria do indeed serve as legal standards that an owner or operator of a coal combustion residuals disposal unit must meet.