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On March 19, 2010, the United States Senate confirmed three nominees, George Apostolakis, William Magwood, and Bill Ostendorff, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) by unanimous consent instead of a roll-call vote.  The three new commissioners will join sitting chairman Gregory Jaczko, a Democrat, and Republican Commissioner, Kristine Svinicki on the five-member agency.

March 29, 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Department of the Interior (DOI) through the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and Department of the Army (DOA) through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), announced on March 24, 2010 the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the federal agencies to promote the development of hydropower.  Pursuant to the MOU, studies will be conducted over the next few years that may help industry determine which Federal dams and reservoirs would be best suited for non-Federal hydropower development.  The process will hopefully determine which sites will have the fewest roadblocks from stakeholders, including the federal dam owners themselves.  These studies may also lead to a determination of which projects can be most efficiently integrated into the grid. 

On March 18, 2010, FERC approved Tres Amigas LLC’s (“Tres Amigas”) request to sell transmission service at negotiated rates, with conditions on anchor customers and initial capacity offerings. In a separate order, FERC declined the petition to disclaim jurisdiction over the transmission facilities that will interconnect the Tres Amigas project with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”) transmission system in Texas.

In July 2009, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM), introduced a bill, the “American Clean Energy Leadership Act,” which would allocate costs for new transmission and bar FERC from assigning the cost of a transmission project to a region or “sub-region” unless FERC can prove the costs are “reasonably proportionate to measureable economic and reliability benefits.”

Last week, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) began the final review stage for new automobile standards that would increase the nation’s fleetwide fuel economy and create the first-ever greenhouse gas (“GHG”) regulations for cars and trucks.  The proposed automobile standards are on track to be finalized by the end of March.