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”). 

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. 

Troutman Sanders LLP Executive Partner for Client Development Strategic Planning Kevin C. Fitzgerald and Energy Associate Christopher R. Jones recently wrote an article “Reconsidering Synergies,” which was published in the July 2011 edition of Public Utilities Fortnightly.

We invite you to click through to a copy of the article, available…

Utility companies should be aware of the July 21, 2011 compliance deadline arising from  Section 1100F of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“the Act”), which amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (“FCRA”).