On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 6-3 decision, reversed the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Court of Appeals”) and upheld the EPA rule that it could consider costs and benefits for existing cooling water intake structures. The EPA estimates that the Supreme Court’s ruling affects over 500 facilities that account for over half of the United States’ electricity production.

On March 26, 2009, FERC issued an order accepting in part and rejecting in part revisions to PJM Interconnection Inc.’s (“PJM”) Reliability Pricing Model (“RPM”) that were proposed in a February 9, 2009, settlement agreement. As part of the order, the Commission increased the cost of new entry (“CONE”), conditionally accepted PJM’s proposed redesign of the incremental auction process, and included new provisions to enable energy efficiency resources to participate in the capacity market.

On March 19, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued its third order on rehearing (“Order No. 890-C”) regarding its open access transmission reform rule, Order No. 890, in order to clarify the calculation of available transfer capability (“ATC”).

Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) “exceptional events rule,” which allows data recorded during unusually strong storms or natural disasters to be excluded when determining whether an area violates federal air quality standards.

On March 19, 2009, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) to approve six Modeling, Data and Analysis (“MOD”) Reliability Standards that would require certain users, owners and operators of the transmission system to develop consistent methodologies for the calculation of ATC.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has reached a proposed determination regarding whether or not greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions endanger public health, public welfare, or both. Not yet published, EPA’s proposed “endangerment finding” was submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) on Friday, March 20th, and is currently undergoing an inter-agency review led by the OMB.

Yesterday, the White House announced that President Obama named the current Acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”), Jon Wellinghoff, to the post permanently. Chairman Wellinghoff is widely seen as a proponent of the White House’s green energy policy.

In addition, the White House announced that…

On Monday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff agreed to principles that will allow the agencies to finalize a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) regarding each agency’s role in developing renewable energy on the Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”).

On Thursday, FERC issued a proposed policy statement and action plan to develop a smarter grid for the U.S. electric transmission system. The Commission’s intent is to prioritize the development of key interoperability standards, provide guidance to the electric industry regarding the need for full cybersecurity for “Smart Grid” projects, and provide an interim rate policy under which jurisdictional public utilities may seek to recover the costs of Smart Grid deployments before relevant standards are adopted through a Commission rulemaking.