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On June 15, 2012, FERC and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”) held a joint meeting on grid reliability at FERC.  The meeting was in furtherance of a Memorandum of Agreement (“MOA”) (see September 11, 2009 edition of the  WER) between the two agencies to facilitate interactions about matters of mutual interest relating to the bulk power system. 

On June 15, 2012, Tony Clark was sworn in as a Commissioner of FERC.  Commissioner Clark’s nomination was approved by the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on April 26, 2012 (see April 30, 2012 edition of the WER), and confirmed by the Senate on May 24, 2012 (see June 4, 2012 edition of the WER).

On June 7, 2012, FERC provided guidance to PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) on whether there was a responsibility to oversee worker safety under its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) and whether the OATT’s limited liability clause precludes a negligence tort claim by an injured utility worker.  The Commission determined that PJM is not responsible for maintaining workers’ safety during maintenance procedures.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory recently performed a modeling study aimed to quantify the total effect that increases in wind energy will have on pollutant emissions from an electric power system.  Although wind energy generation does not itself generate harmful emissions, wind is thought to have the potential to create a negative effect on emissions from the rest of the power grid as thermal power producers are required to adjust their output level in response to wind’s variability and unpredictability.

On May 30, 2012, EPA finalized its proposal to allow states to use compliance with the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”) as an alternative to the Best Available Retrofit Technology (“BART”) requirements for individual sources under the Clean Air Act regional haze program.  To help implement this decision, EPA also replaced several state regional haze plans that relied on the predecessor to CSAPR, the Clean Air Interstate Rule (“CAIR”), with federal plans that rely on CSAPR in lieu of BART. 

At the end of last week, the District Court for the District of Columbia ordered EPA to release a new national ambient air quality standard for particulate matter (“PM”) by this Thursday, June 7th.  The decision appears to reflect frustration by the court at EPA’s reluctance to meet deadlines for the release of new rules required by the Clean Air Act.  With less than a week to go, and the proposed standards still under review by the White House, EPA will have to move faster than ever to comply with the order or develop yet another creative means of buying itself more time.

On May 23, 2012, Staff from FERC’s Office of Enforcement submitted a response to supplement the record in its financial performance audit of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) and refuted claims by NERC that Staff “refused to meet with NERC” and “failed to act in good faith.”  FERC Staff also contested NERC’s claims that Enforcement did not provide an opportunity to review revised recommendations.