Our litigation and environmental teams recently discussed the DC Circuit’s ruling that rejected a challenge to the EPA’s listing of a site on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL).
Power & Pipes
FERC, CFTC, and State Energy Law Developments
New York and New Jersey have announced the largest offshore wind solicitations in the United States. The solicitations—2,500 megawatts (MW) by New York and 2,400 MW by New Jersey—would add nearly 5 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity.
FERC has issued a final rule, Order No. 872, revising the Commission’s regulations governing qualifying small power producers and co-generators (collectively, qualifying facilities or QFs) under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA).
FERC recently dismissed the New England Ratepayers Association’s petition for declaratory order requesting FERC to exert jurisdiction over certain net-metering transactions.
On July 10, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was well within its rights to prevent states from prohibiting energy storage resources from participating in wholesale (i.e., sales for resale) energy markets. The court’s order is the latest judicial affirmation of FERC’s authority to regulate activities on wide portions of the electric grid, including facilities reserved to state regulators, if those activities affect wholesale rates.
Read our recent LawFlash discussing a June 30 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit regarding the recent use of tolling orders by FERC as a way to prevent rehearing requests from being denied by operation of law.
At its June 18 open meeting, FERC issued a notice of inquiry seeking public input on cybersecurity-related enhancements to the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards. In light of the constantly evolving nature of cybersecurity threats to the bulk power system, FERC is interested in determining whether the current CIP standards adequately address specific cyberrisk areas related to data security and cybersecurity incident detection, containment, and mitigation.
Our environmental and energy regulatory teams recently analyzed the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the US Forest Service is authorized to issue permits for pipelines going through public lands, even when those pipelines cross national trails. While the decision is a positive development for natural gas pipeline sponsors, recent rulings by courts and federal agencies suggest that there may be additional permitting considerations impacting natural gas pipeline project development.
Following the declaration of a global pandemic due to the widespread transmission of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the issuance of shutdown and/or stay-at-home directives cascaded from commercial enterprises and state and local governments across the United States. During this period of extreme disruption to daily routine, the continuity and integrity of energy operations were necessary to ensure that the massive shift to home-based life could exist with minimal business disruption.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has issued a straw proposal for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure build out, to advance the statutory targets for the installation of EV chargers under a law signed earlier this year.