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Congress

Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A New World Order

Pressure for national legislation builds as the Northeastern U.S. goes it alone and carbon trading takes off in the European Union.

Domestic and international pressures are building rapidly on the United States to enact some form of legislation to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, as a spate of recent developments turns up the heat on the Bush administration. Internal pressure is building on several fronts
Byline: 

Peter Fontaine

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Coal Gasification Gets Real

The technology works, but public policy will dictate its future.

The future of integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plants depends on public support, but environmental and market factors are helping IGCC look like a winning technology for the future.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Roundtable: The Future Of Generation

Meeting tomorrow’s power needs will pose tough choices.

A group of executives and analysts tell Fortnightly that the outlook for generation is positive, because it has to be. But making generation work well—affordably, cleanly, and reliably—won’t be easy.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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State Regulators: Driven By Reliability

Can natural gas supply keep up with demand for power?

Reliability and utility infrastructure development remain regulators’ top concerns. This year’s Regulators Forum spans the different regions of the country to highlight the most pressing issues facing the industry.
Byline: 

Lori A. Burkhart

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FERC Versus Bankruptcy Jurisdiction: A Double-Edged Sword

Commission Watch: Be careful what you wish for.

Financially troubled companies and their actual and potential counter-parties in many cases will continue to have difficulty in assessing business, default, and credit risks. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of bankruptcy court jurisdiction over requests to reject FERC-jurisdictional wholesale electricity sales contracts. Yet the court did not resolve — and arguably magnified — uncertainties about the standard that should be employed by a bankruptcy court in considering such a request.
Byline: 

John P. Ratnaswamy

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Debilitating Doctrine

How the filed-rate policy wreaks havoc — and what courts can do about it.

Like many venerable legal rules, the filed-rate doctrine is rarely questioned. Over the last century, it has served many important purposes. However, with deregulated wholesale electric power markets at the federal level and various degrees of deregulation across the states, both the doctrine's continued applicability and usefulness are suspect.
Byline: 

Jim Rossi

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Technology Corridor

Cyber and Physical Security:

Technology Corridor

Cyber and Physical Security:

Although NERC and other agencies are helping out, utilities still face internal obstacles.

Byline: 
Christian Hamaker
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The Future of Fuel Diversity: Crisis or Euphoria?

The fragmented electric industry structure poses an obstacle to a more stable, diverse, and secure power supply.

The Future of Fuel Diversity

The fragmented electric industry structure poses an obstacle to a more stable, diverse, and secure power supply.

Daily news headlines have drawn attention to concerns about fuels, especially the rising prices of oil and natural gas. Fears of interruptions of oil exports from Iraq, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela (take your pick) roil the energy market. But coal is not exempt from bad news, as production declines reduce output from Eastern U.S.

Byline: 
Ellen Lapson and Richard Hunter
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Gas Supply: Too little, Too late?

Pipeline and LNG terminal developments may arrive too late to prevent a natural gas disaster.

Alaska’s North Slope gas remains in the pipeline, so to speak, despite the efforts of industry heavyweights to bring the stranded resource to the lower-48 states. Meanwhile, LNG development is beset by questions of safety, siting, and permitting, leaving North America with high gas prices and little clarity about future supply.
Byline: 

Michael T. Burr

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Perspective: Leave Green-Power Quotas to the States

Congress should not impose a federal renewable portfolio standard.

The adoption of an RPS by more than a dozen states has inspired and contributed to proposals for a federal green-power quota. Leave the green-power quotas to the states. PURPA should be amended to include an RPS among the retail policies that can be adopted or rejected by state public service commissions.
Byline: 

James W. Moeller

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