EPA announced today that it proposes to make a finding that greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions endanger the public health and welfare. If, as widely expected, EPA finalizes that finding later this year, EPA will become legally obligated to regulate GHGs from a variety of stationary and mobile sources under the existing federal Clean Air Act (“CAA”).

On Thursday, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff presided over his first open meeting since President Obama designated him Chairman. As part of his opening remarks, Chairman Wellinghoff thanked his fellow commissioners and FERC staff for their dedication and hard work.

On Wednesday, the NERC Integration of Variable Generation Task Force (“IVGTF”) released a special report (“IVGTF Report”) detailing significant changes for system planning and operations to reliably integrate high levels of variable resources into the North American bulk power system.

On April 8, 2009, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) released a statement stating that although they are not aware of any known cyber attacks on the electric grid, cyber security is an area of concern for the organization. On the same day, the Wall Street Journal published an article finding breaches in the United States power grid by spies from China, Russia, and other countries.

On April 2, 2009, Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) introduced an energy bill (S. 807) that would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) transmission siting authority, provide nuclear power incentives, expand offshore drilling and use oil and gas revenues to fund renewable energy and efficiency.

On April 2, 2009, FERC denied the two principle allegations in a complaint by PJM Interconnection, LLC (“PJM”) against a member company, Power Edge LLC (“Power Edge”) and several of its affiliates (collectively, “Tower Companies”), claiming Tower Companies manipulated PJM’s financial transmission rights (“FTR”) when Power Edge defaulted in December 2007.

On Wednesday, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, released the National Energy Security Act of 2009 (“NESA”). NESA, which is co-sponsored by Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), attempts to diversify and promote alternative forms of energy such as plug-in cars and trucks, biofuels, and domestic renewables and fossil fuels in order to decrease the United States’ dependence on foreign oil by 80% by 2050.