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The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a stunner with its decision this morning in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency. The Supreme Court has curtailed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation of stationary source greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under two Clean Air Act permitting programs – New Source Review Prevention of Significant …

My colleague, Daniel Lee, followed oral argument yesterday in the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of federal greenhouse gas (GHG) regulation in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, and provides this analysis:

During oral argument for Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA this Monday, the Supreme Court conflicted over a number of issues including the application of…

Over 40 percent of the lands in Malheur County have been designated as core habitat for sage grouse by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife ("ODFW"). Other counties in southeastern Oregon are also heavily affected. ODFW’s approach was to simply recommend against any development in core habitat, without consideration whether off-site mitigation could result…

A tentative ruling was issued yesterday in the related cases California Chamber of Commerce v. California Air Resources Board (ARB)  and  Morning Star Packing Co. v. ARB, pending before the Sacramento County Superior Court.  The cases challenge the legality of ARB’s cap and trade auctions under two theories:  (1) the cap and trade auctions…

Each year, Women of Wind Energy (WoWE) awards fellowships to women college students or recent graduates to attend the annual American Wind Energy Association WINDPOWER conference.

Previous awardees include engineers, lawyers, PhDs, MBAs, technicians, meteorologists, economists and more from schools like Stanford, Columbia Gorge Community College, James Madison, UC Boulder, Appalachian State, and MIT.

Applications…

Congress yesterday passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the Act), which averted the so-called “fiscal cliff.” The President is expected to sign the Act shortly.

The Act includes a number of energy-related tax provisions, including a one-year extension and modification of the production tax credit under Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code (the PTC) for certain renewable energy facilities. The energy-related provisions in the Act include:

  • PTC Extensions and Modifications – The PTC is extended and modified for certain types of facilities. These extensions and modifications include:
    • In the case of wind, geothermal, landfill gas, trash, marine, and hydrokinetic facilities and certain closed-loop biomass, open-loop biomass, and qualified hydropower facilities, the PTC will apply if construction begins before January 1, 2014 (rather than if the facilities are placed in service before January 1, 2014). The Act does not specify what it means to begin construction for this purpose, although there are analogous authorities that have been adopted for other purposes that may be applied. Note, however, that a facility to which this extension applies may qualify for the PTC even if it is not placed in service before January 1, 2014.

       

    • The PTC for municipal solid waste facilities is modified to exclude from the definition of municipal solid waste certain paper that is commonly recycled and that has been segregated from other solid waste.

       

    • The election to claim the investment tax credit rather than the PTC for certain facilities is extended to apply to certain facilities with respect to which construction begins prior to January 1, 2014.

       

    • The PTC for Indian coal production facilities is extended for one year, to apply to sales of qualified production during the eight-year period (rather than the previous seven-year period) beginning on January 1, 2006.
       

Continue Reading Fiscal Cliff Bill Includes PTC Extension and Other Energy-Related Provisions

As my colleagues Kristen Castaños and Melissa Foster posted on the Stoel Rives California Environmental Law Blog, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced today that it will publish the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (“Solar PEIS”) for solar energy development in six southwestern states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.  The Solar PEIS is a major step forward in the permitting of utility-scale solar energy on public lands in the West.   

The Solar PEIS will establish solar energy zones with access to existing or planned transmission and with the fewest resource conflicts and provide incentives for development within those zones.  The roadmap set forth in the Solar PEIS will make for faster, more streamlined permitting of large-scale solar projects on these public lands.  The focus of the Solar PEIS is on Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) lands that are most suitable for solar energy development.  It identifies 17 Solar Energy Zones (“SEZs”), totaling about 285,000 acres of public lands, as priority areas for utility-scale solar development.  The Solar PEIS also notes the potential for additional zones through ongoing and future regional planning processes and allows for utility-scale solar development on approximately 19 million acres in variance areas lying outside of identified SEZs.Continue Reading U.S. Department of Interior Moves to Streamline Solar Development in the West

From our colleague Wayne Rosenbaum:

As Juliet Cho blogged about in our California Environmental Law blog, California Governor Jerry Brown  signed the Jobs and Economic Development through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011 (also known as AB 900) into law last September. The law aims to provide an incentive for applicants to move forward…