On February 14, 2011, the Commission submitted their Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2012 Budget Request for $304,600,000.  The budget request represents a 2.8 percent increase over the 2010 actualized numbers, and that amount equals $8,303,000.  The oil industry is the one industry to show a decrease in the Commission budget allotment, and it dropped by 0.6 percent or $7,656,000 for FY 2012. 

On February 9, 2011, the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held hearings on a draft bill authored by full Committee Chairman Fred Upton (D. Mich.) that would revoke EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”).

On January 31, 2011 the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) filed its first Administrative Citation Notice of Penalty (“NOP”), at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”).  In addition to the Administrative Citation NOP, NERC also filed 22 individual NOPs.

On February 8, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit” or the “court”) denied a petition for review filed by the Maryland Public Service Commission and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (together, “Petitioners”). 

On February 7, 2011, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) and Department of the Interior (“Interior”) announced a joint strategic plan entitled the National Offshore Wind Strategy: Creating an Offshore Wind Industry in the United States in order to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind and decrease cost.

On February 1, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the “Ninth Circuit”) decided that the Department of Energy (“DOE”) failed to consult with affected states when conducting their congestion study as part of section 216 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”), and the designations of the Mid-Atlantic Area National Corridor (“Mid-Atlantic Corridor”) and the Southwest Area National Corridor (“Southwest Corridor”) were arbitrary and capricious.