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On April 20, 2010, a fire on the offshore Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused an explosion killing eleven workers.  Within two days, the oil rig sank causing a pipe to break, and since then oil has been spreading rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico.  Although the media focus has been on efforts to stop the oil spill, the impact of the oil spill is also affecting proposed federal energy legislation and regulatory oversight of the energy industry in general.

On May 5, 2010, the United States Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) released a report, “U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions in 2009: A Retrospective Review,” showing the largest decrease in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions since EIA started collecting emissions data in 1949.  The seven percent drop (405 million metric tons) in 2009 is a stark contrast to the consistent increase in emissions throughout the 1990s.

After months of anticipation, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released its 563-page proposal for regulating the disposal and management of coal combustion byproducts (“CCBs”) from coal-fired power plants.  Instead of offering a single approach, EPA requested comments on two options for regulating CCBs.  The first would regulate CCBs as a new “special waste” subject to many of the requirements for hazardous waste, while the second would regulate CCBs in a manner similar to typical solid waste, subject to far fewer and less stringent environmental requirements.  EPA would lead the first approach, the various States the second.  Either of EPA’s proposed options represents a seismic shift toward more comprehensive and expensive requirements for CCBs disposal and management.  And for certain utilities, EPA’s regulatory proposal effectively signals the end of ash pond disposal for CCBs.

Last week, the EPA finally took action to clarify the application of the “Maximum Achievable Control Technology (“MACT”) Hammer” to vacated MACT standards.  The MACT Hammer is the provision that requires existing sources to develop case-by-case MACT limits for hazardous air pollutants if EPA misses its deadline for promulgating a generally applicable MACT standard. 

On April 5, 2010, Google Inc., the Climate Group and 45 other technology companies (collectively, the “Parties”) wrote a letter to President Barack Obama encouraging him to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by promoting ways for electric consumers to monitor and manage their energy consumption.