On June 1, 2011 the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc.’s (“Midwest ISO” or “MISO”) announced that dispatchable intermittent resources (“DIRs”) are fully available in the real-time energy market.  This change means wind resources are now able to participate in the real-time market like other generators. 

On May 31, 2011, New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, filed an action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against several federal agencies and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (“Army Corps”). In the filing the state sought to compel the agencies to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) before authorizing the Delaware River Basin (“basin”) shale natural gas development. 

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) headquarters in Washington DC experienced an outage after a reported failure of two underground transmission cables.  FERC’s systems, including online services, were shut down, and personnel were placed on administrative leave.

On May 26, 2011, a United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to issue a final, non-appealable Prevention of Significant Deterioration (“PSD”) permit decision no later than August 27, 2011 for Avenal Power Center, LLC’s 600 megawatt natural gas-fired power plant in California. 

On May 24, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) dismissed a complaint stemming from the California energy crisis by relying on several grounds, including a federal “catchall” statute of limitation – perhaps the first time FERC has relied on this law to dismiss a complaint.

On May 27, 2011, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (“Texas Commission”) held a workshop regarding Entergy Texas’ proposal to join the Midwest Independent System Operator, Inc. (“Midwest ISO”).  The Midwest ISO made a presentation to the Texas Commission explaining how its system is operated and explaining the benefits of Entergy joining its system.

On May 19, 2011, FERC staff presented the Summer 2011 Energy Market and Reliability Assessment (the “Assessment”).   Overall, staff revealed that demand forecasts are largely the same as compared with Summer 2010, and generation and reserve margins for the season are projected to be sufficient.

On May 16, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA” or “Agency”) stayed indefinitely the effective date for the controversial final rules, “National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Major Sources: Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters” (the “Major Source Boiler MACT”) and “Standards of Performance for New Sources and Emission Guidelines for Existing Sources: Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incinerator Units” (the “CISWI Rule”).