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Citing a goal of “reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty,” the Obama Administration on September 2 instructed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to withdraw its proposal to strengthen national ambient air quality standards for ozone.  The surprise move was the first time President Obama explicitly and completely rejected an EPA regulation, creating a firestorm of criticism from environmentalists and key Democrats and praise from industry groups and Republicans.

On August 29, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued an order initiating review of a Notice of Penalty (“NOP”) issued by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) on July 28, 2011, against Southwestern Power Administration (“SWPA”) for violating Reliability Standards Requirements for Critical Infrastructure Protection.  SWPA and the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) filed an application for review with FERC arguing that NERC lacks the statutory authority to assess monetary penalties against a federal agency, and thus the NOP against SWPA must be dismissed.

Several attorneys from the Troutman Sanders LLP Atlanta-based Environmental and Natural Resources Practice Group were recently published in the July/August 2011 edition of EEI’s Electric Perspectives magazine regarding Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) regulatory inspections.  Co-authored by Douglas Henderson, Margaret Campbell, Hollister Hill and Randy Brogdon, the article outlines the steps that companies need to take to be well-prepared should the EPA show up for a power plant inspection.  The article provides a useful checklist that companies can use to make sure that their plants are inspection-ready as well as a list of questions that will likely be asked by EPA inspectors. 

On July 22, 2011, the Atlantic Wind Connection (“AWC”), offshore transmission line project off the Mid-Atlantic coast that would bring thousands of megawatts of offshore wind capacity ashore (see the October 12, 2010 edition of the WER), announced that Belgium-based transmission company Elia has taken a minority stake in the project and will be providing consulting services to the AWC.

On Thursday July 21, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”), the FERC voted 5-0 to issue a final rule on Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation by Transmission Owning and Operating Public Utilities, Order No. 1000 (“Order No. 1000”).  Commissioner Moeller issued a partial dissent to the Final Rule.  A more detailed summary of Order No. 1000 is available here. 

To the dismay of environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) on July 13 declined to adopt a long-anticipated new method of setting a combined secondary national ambient air quality standard (“NAAQS”) for nitrogen oxides (“NOx”) and sulfur oxides (“SOx”) recommended by EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (“CASAC”) and instead proposed a five-year study pilot research effort on the issue.