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Subscribe to McDermott Will & Emery's PostsFERC Commissioner Moeller Convenes Public Meeting Focusing on Resolving Natural Gas Supply Challenges for Electric Generators
By McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 22, 2014
Posted In FERC, Natural Gas
Commissioner Philip Moeller of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held a public meeting on September 18, 2014 to discuss ideas to facilitate and improve the way in which natural gas is traded and to explore the concept of establishing a centralized natural gas trading platform. Although not an official FERC conference, the ideas at...
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EPA Proposes to Eliminate Affirmative Defenses for Many Clean Air Act Violations
By McDermott Will & Emery and Jacob Hollinger on Sep 16, 2014
Posted In Environmental
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposed rule on September 5, 2014 that would prevent states from including affirmative defenses in their Clean Air Act state implementation plans (SIPs) for emissions exceedances that occur during startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) periods. The proposal would also require several states to revise their existing SIPs...
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Environmental Impact Analysis Required for Natural Gas Facilities Clarified in Court Decision Denying Residents’ Challenge to Compressor Siting Approval
By McDermott Will & Emery on Aug 20, 2014
Posted In FERC, Natural Gas
A New York town’s challenge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) siting authorization for a natural gas pipeline compressor station was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Minisink Residents for Environmental Protection and Safety v. FERC. The court’s August 15 decision denying the petition for review of residents...
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Appeals Court Validates FERC Regional Planning Mandate as Reasoned Evolution of the Open-Access Electricity Transmission System
By McDermott Will & Emery on Aug 18, 2014
Posted In FERC
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Order No. 1000 mandate that going forward the high-voltage electric transmission grid be planned and fairly financed regionally by all of its operators and beneficiaries, survived myriad challenges from 45 petitioners in the unanimous August 15 decision of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...
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NJ Energy Resilience Bank Funds Distributed Energy Resources
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jul 28, 2014
Posted In Project Development and Finance, Renewables
Last week, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved an agreement with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) to establish and operate an Energy Resilience Bank in the state. The BPU approved a plan to direct over $200 million in federal aid to the bank. The Energy Resilience Bank (ERB) will focus...
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Get LinkedIn to Updates on Mexico’s Energy Reforms
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jul 24, 2014
Posted In Natural Gas, Power Markets
The energy reforms in Mexico have generated significant interest from energy investors around the world. McDermott has created a new LinkedIn Group, McDermott Discussion Group: Mexico’s Energy Reforms, to discuss legislative developments and their impacts on the changing energy private investment climate. Members of our team are well studied in these reforms and we will...
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D.C. Circuit Rules that FERC May Not Segment Its Evaluation of the Environmental Impact of Related Natural Gas Pipeline Construction Projects, Regardless of Whether They Are Separately Proposed
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 27, 2014
Posted In FERC, Natural Gas
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion holding that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it segmented its evaluation of the environmental impact of four separately proposed but connected projects to upgrade the “300 Line” on the Eastern Leg of Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company’s...
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EPA Publishes its Proposed Regulations for Existing Power Plants – Starting the Public Comment Period
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 18, 2014
Posted In Environmental
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal Register its June 2, 2014, proposal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired power plants. The act of publication triggers the start of the 120-day public comment period, meaning that interested parties must submit comments to the agency by no later than October 16,...
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Divided Court of Appeals Panel Vacates FERC Order 745 on Compensation of Demand Response
By McDermott Will & Emery on May 27, 2014
Posted In FERC
FERC’s Order No. 745 requiring independent regional grid operators (RTOs and ISOs) in limited circumstances to compensate providers of state-authorized demand response services in the same amounts that they compensate electricity generators was vacated in a May 23, 2014 decision by the majority of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...
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FERC Defers to Exclusionary State and Local Laws in Transmission Planning
By McDermott Will & Emery on May 19, 2014
Posted In FERC
In three separate rehearing orders issued last Thursday, May 15, 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reversed course on its decision in Order No. 1000 to prohibit references in transmission tariffs to state laws such as rights of first refusal (ROFR) to build transmission expansions. The Commission determined on further consideration that excluding such state...
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