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On July 19, 2011, FERC issued an order on Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, and found insufficient consensus to institute a rulemaking proceeding to adopt the five families of standards identified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) as ready for review by the Commission.  Section 1305(d) of the Energy Independence and Security Act (“EISA”) of 2007 directed the Commission to institute a rulemaking proceeding to implement standards and protocols to ensure smart grid functionality and interoperability in transmission of electric power and in electricity markets.

On Friday, July 1, 2011, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) released its draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement (“SGEIS”), a proposal that would grant access to more than 80% of the shale formations within the state of New York.  Notably, the SGEIS would still prohibit drilling in the watersheds that serve New York City and Syracuse, any state owned lands, and all primary and principal aquifers.

On July 7, 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued new rules requiring power plants in 27 eastern, mid-western, and southern states to cut emissions of nitrogen oxide by 54% and sulfur dioxide by 73% from 2005 levels by the time the rules take full effect in 2014.  The “Cross-State Air Pollution Rule,” which was proposed a year ago as the Clean Air Transport Rule, sets state-specific emissions limits aimed at reducing wind-borne transport of ozone and fine particulate matter across state lines in the East and some state west of the Mississippi.

The EPA on July 1, 2011 issued a final rule deferring for three years application of the Clean Air Act’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration (“PSD”) and Title V permitting requirements to carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emissions from biogenic stationary sources.  EPA and the Science Advisory Board will use the three-year deferral period to conduct an analysis of the impacts of emissions from bioenergy and other biogenic stationary sources prior to a final determination of how such emissions should be regulated.

On July 1, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) rejected an appeal brought forth by the attorneys general of Washington and South Carolina alleging that the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) violated the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (“NWPA”).  The attorneys general claimed that the DOE violated the NWPA by seeking to withdraw their license application to build and operate the Yucca Mountain nuclear disposal site in Nevada, under the direction of President Obama, thus effectively killing the nuclear disposal project. 

On July 1, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued an order confirming the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc.’s (“Midwest ISO”) interpretation of the Joint Operating Agreement (“JOA”) between it and the Southwest Power Pool (“SPP”).  FERC declared that the JOA allows for the sharing of available transmission capacity between the Midwest ISO, Entergy Arkansas, Inc. (“Entergy Arkansas”), and SPP in the event that Entergy Arkansas becomes a transmission-owning member of the Midwest ISO.