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On January 15, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) approved the Sparrows Point Project in Baltimore County, Maryland despite objections from Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff. The project includes a liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) terminal that will have a send-out capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet per day and 88 miles of newly constructed natural gas pipeline.

On Thursday, both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Ways and Means Committee separately passed their respective portions of the economic stimulus bill, committing billions of dollars to upgrading the nation’s electric grid and increasing investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

On January 15, FERC issued an order approving a small solar thermal generating facility to be designated as a Qualifying Facility (“QF”) under section 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”) despite the fact that portions of the same facility are at times used to generate electricity using natural gas.

On January 14, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) approved an order granting Waste Control Specialists, LLC (“WCS”) licenses to operate a new low-level radioactive waste (“LLRW”) disposal facility in West Texas. The Commissioners voted 2-0 to allow WCS to build the facility in Andrews County, near the New Mexico state line. A third commissioner abstained from the vote.

On Wednesday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina held that SO2 and NOx emissions from four of TVA’s coal-fired power plants constitute a public nuisance. Specifically, the court agreed with the claims made by the State of North Carolina that the pollution from TVA’s Bull Run, Kingston, John Sevier, and Widows Creek facilities “clouds its scenic vistas, poisons its wildlife, and sickens its people.”

EPA issued a final rule this week intended to further clarify its policy on the scope of New Source Review (“NSR”), the program that requires a pre-construction permit for new plants or “major modifications” of existing plants. The EPA policy, known as “aggregation,” refers to the grouping of two projects into one for purposes of determining whether the combined effect of the two activities will result in a significant emissions increase that triggers the permitting requirements of NSR.

On December 23, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) upheld FERC’s interpretation of the term “markets” as it applies to qualifying facility (“QF”) purchase exemptions found in the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (“PURPA”). The Petitioners, the American Forest and Paper Association (“AFPA”), argued that the term means only competitive markets.

On Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued an order offering guidance (“Guidance Order”) on conducting compliance audits to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) and the eight regional entities (“Regional Entities”) with responsibility for enforcing reliability standards. The Guidance Order was released on the same day the Commission approved an audit report of SPP’s reliability functions.