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On September 28, 2011, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) released its proposed regulations on hydraulic fracturing.  These regulations follow a July 1, 2011 draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement (“SGEIS”) (see July 11, 2011 edition of the WER). 

The House of Representatives on Friday passed H.R. 2401, the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act (“TRAIN Act”).  The Act establishes an interagency federal panel to assess the cumulative impact of various EPA regulations and requires that the panel issue its report by next August.  The bill prevents EPA from proceeding with its recently promulgated Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”) and finalizing its proposed Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”) rule.

Last week saw continued appeals filed of EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”), as well as petitions to EPA to reconsider the rule.  The deadline for appeals is October 7, 2011.  Currently, the following parties have filed appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit:  EME Homer City Generation, L.P., Luminant Generation Company, LLC,  GenOn Energy, Inc., State of Kansas, State of Texas, States of Nebraska, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.  As of this writing, EME Homer City, Luminant and GenOn have asked the Court to stay the rule.  Other appeals and other motions for stays are expected.

On September 20, 2011, Brian Harrison, and W.G. “Bill” Stover, Jr., asserted through counsel their intention to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution at a September 23, 2011 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  Harrison is currently Chief Executive Officer of Solyndra, Inc. (“Solyndra”) and Stover is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. 

On August 25, 2011, the Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (“ANPR”) related to its safety program for natural gas transmission pipelines.  The ANPR asks for comment on various questions concerning whether pipeline integrity management (“IM”) requirements and other regulatory requirements relating to system integrity should be enhanced.  Written comments are due by December 2, 2011, though parties have already requested additional time to submit comments.

On September 19, 2011, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) wrote a letter to Federal Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff requesting that he clarify the Commission’s plans to address threats to the nation’s bulk power system as a result of the pending Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) regulations.  Senator Murkowski’s September 19th letter builds upon the issues identified in her May 17, 2011 letter, and addresses the August 1, 2011 response of Chairman Wellinghoff.

On September 14, 2011, the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing to explore the impact of current and pending EPA utility regulations on electric system reliability.  In a somewhat unusual event, all five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) testified before the subcommittee about FERC’s role in studying the reliability impact of EPA regulations.

On September 9, 2011, FERC and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) announced they would work together to examine the September 8th power outage that affected more than 1 million customers in Southern California, Arizona and Northern Baja Mexico.  4,300 megawatts (“MW”) of load were lost when a technician removed a voltage-regulating capacitor bank from service in a North Gila, Arizona substation, and a 500kV transmission line from Phoenix into Southern California went out of service.

On September 15, 2011, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) proposing to approve revisions to eight critical infrastructure protection (“CIP”) reliability standards, CIP-002-4 through CIP-009-4, which were developed and submitted to the Commission by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”).