On Wednesday, leaders from both the U.S. House of Representatives (“House”) and the U.S. Senate (“Senate”) finished reconciling all of the major provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Stimulus Bill”), estimated to cost $789 billion. While some of the energy provisions passed by the House and Senate (see January 23 and January 30, 2009 edition of WER) have changed, the majority remain intact.

On Monday, several regional grid operators and organizations announced the Joint Coordinated System Plan (“JCSP”) report, which estimates that over $80 billion in new transmission is needed to support 20% of the electricity consumed in the eastern U.S. coming from wind generation. 20% is the wind energy contribution that the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) recommended in its Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study.

On January 30, 2009, FERC issued an order approving ISO-NE tariff revisions to integrate the FCM and the generator interconnection process. The modified OATT provisions will offer two levels of interconnection service, one of which will have a deliverability requirement.

On January 29, Indeck Energy Services Inc. filed a lawsuit in Saratoga County, New York against New York State’s participation in and implementation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI”) program.  Indeck owns almost 20 electric power plants powered by various types of fuels, including a 128-MW combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant in Corinth, New York.

On January 27, 2009, Florida Power & Light Co. (“FPL”), a subsidiary of FPL Group, Inc., stated that it hopes it can reach a settlement with FERC staff regarding the February 26, 2008 blackout in Southern Florida. If FPL is unable to settle with FERC, it could end up facing severe fines for the incident under FERC’s power to assess civil penalties for violations of the mandatory reliability standards.

The first indications of how the Obama Administration will approach the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review (“NSR”) program became apparent this week, as one utility settled its NSR lawsuit and another new lawsuit was filed by the Justice Department. All signs point towards an acceleration in NSR enforcement actions against coal-fired power plants.

On January 23, 2009, President Obama named Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff as the acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”). When Commissioner Joseph T. Kelliher announced he was stepping down as Chairman in early January, Wellinghoff and the other Democrat on the Commission, Suedeen Kelly, were seen as the leading contenders for the position.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives (“House”) approved its version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Stimulus Bill”) by a 244-188 vote. The bill largely adopted provisions passed by House committees last week (see January 23, 2009 edition of the WER).