Energy industry: is your insurance sufficient to handle a major cyber event? Larry Bracken, Mike Levine and I, Andrea DeField, address this question and more in our recent article for Electric Light & Power, found here.  In the article, we identify three major gaps in cyber insurance that we routinely see when analyzing coverage

The Eleventh Circuit appears to be poised to be one of the first, if not the first, appellate courts in the country to address the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Kisor v. Wilkie, which addresses how courts should evaluate an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations.
Continue Reading Eleventh Circuit Potentially Poised to Address Impact of Kisor

The United States’ first major offshore wind energy project is running into delays as federal agencies internally debate whether the project plan adequately protects the fishing industry. How the agencies resolve the degree to which the project plan must address the fishing industry’s concerns will shape how future offshore wind energy projects are planned and permitted.
Continue Reading First Major US Offshore Wind Project Delayed by Fishing Industry Concerns

Last month, Representative Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced companion bills in the House and Senate that renewed the call for a national clean energy standard for retail utilities. While Congress has mulled over the idea for over a decade, states have passed their own standards that force power generators to obtain increasing amounts of their electricity from non- or low-emitting sources. More recently, states have aggressively updated these targets in attempts to decarbonize their power sectors.
Continue Reading States Increase Renewable Requirements Without Federal Standard

State environmental regulators are beginning to develop plans designed to meet more stringent air quality standards under the Clean Air Act (CAA), including standards to protect against unhealthful levels of ground-level ozone. In doing so, many states are looking more closely at a factor that contributes to their air quality problems but that they lack any authority to address: the phenomenon of air pollution carried by prevailing winds into their jurisdictions from emission sources located not only outside their own state borders but outside the US itself. The issue of international contributions to air quality concerns has gained currency in part due to the many challenges states face in meeting the stringent nationwide air quality standards for ground-level ozone that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted in 2015.
Continue Reading The Foreign Factor: Accounting for International Emissions in Air Quality Planning

On March 21, 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or FERC) held its monthly open meeting. Highlights of the meeting included the following:

  • Electric Transmission Incentives Policy (Docket No. PL19-4-000)
    • The Commission issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) seeking comments on the scope and implementation of its electric transmission incentives regulation and policy.
    • Section 219 of the Federal Power Act directs the Commission to use transmission incentives to help ensure reliability and reduce the cost of delivered power by reducing transmission congestion. The Commission issued Order No. 679 in 2006 to establish its approach to transmission incentives and set forth a series of potential incentives that it would consider. The Commission subsequently refined its approach in a 2012 policy statement.
    • The NOI seeks comments in response to questions addressing many matters, including several that have not previously been addressed by the Commission’s transmission incentive policy, including:

Continue Reading FERC March 2019 Open Meeting Highlights

The costs of overly nationalistic policies likely outweigh the benefits for Mexico with respect to the international energy community. If the AMLO administration chooses to attempt nationalization of the considerable foreign investment which followed the 2013 Energy Reforms in an effort to stay true to its campaign rhetoric, it would not be surprising to witness Mexico’s rapid descent into international pariah status.
Continue Reading US-Mexico Energy & Environmental Policy Transition: Opportunity Amidst Uncertainty?

Energy companies may not be thinking much yet about federal legislation to regulate the consumer data they hold, but they should be. Privacy is shaping up to be a key legislative topic this year.

Why would an energy company need to care about privacy legislation? Because lots of different energy companies have extensive consumer data. Oil companies’ service station loyalty programs, electric utilities’ customer data—these are among the many types of consumer data that might end up being regulated under legislation Congress is expected to consider. Any company with large amounts of consumer data should pay attention to the issue. In addition, HR data may also be covered by privacy legislation, affecting every US company whether or not they hold consumer data.
Continue Reading Issue Spotting: How Privacy May Impact the Energy Sector