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A bill authored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) to permanently strip the EPA of most authority to regulate greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions passed the House Energy and Power Subcommittee by voice vote on March 10, 2011.  H.R. 910, “The Energy Tax Prevention Act,” (the “Act”) was introduced on March 3, 2011 after February hearings on the draft bill at which Troutman Sander’s D.C. partner Peter Glaser testified. 

On December 10, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“the Court”) denied motions by a broad swath of industry and several states to stay EPA’s greenhouse gas (“GHG”) regulatory program.  The motions asked the Court to stay the appeals pending the Court’s disposition of the numerous appeals of these regulations on the merits. 

On Sunday, November 14, 2010, a brief blackout occurred during the third quarter of the National Football League (“NFL”) game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys.  The blackout left 81,000 spectators in complete darkness after an initial dimming of the lights caused the officials to halt play.

On October 26, 2010, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) released a Special Assessment, “Potential Resource Adequacy Impacts of U.S. Environmental Regulations” (the “Assessment”), which examines the impact of four potential Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) rules and proposed rules which could result in generating unit retirements or forced retrofits between 2013 and 2018. 

EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (“CAAAC”) met on October 5, 2010 and October 6, 2010 to discuss the CAAAC Climate Change Work Group’s newest report on the implementation of Best Available Control Technology (“BACT”) for greenhouse gas (“GHG”) permitting.  While the report was issued on August 5, 2010, the report was not formally considered by CAAAC until this week.  CAAAC formally accepted the report and transmitted it to EPA.