Yesterday EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy unveiled the highly anticipated carbon dioxide rules for existing power plants. Dubbed the “Clean Power Plan,” the rules taken together likely will have a significant impact on industrial and other consumers of electricity as well as developers of natural gas-fired and renewable generation (e.g., solar, biomass and wind). Stoel Rives attorneys … Continue Reading
The Washington State Department of Commerce (formerly the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development or CTED) has announced that it is attempting to revise Washington’s comprehensive energy plan (the “State Energy Strategy”). The State Energy Strategy was last revised in 2003, and it does not serve current energy realities and forecasts. Therefore, the Washington State … Continue Reading
My partner Tom Wood recently composed and circulated this email alert about the return of the "Global Warming" case against several electric utilities: Five years ago eight states and New York City made headlines when they sued several electric utilities alleging that their carbon dioxide emissions constituted a federal common law nuisance. The … Continue Reading
The U.S. Interior Department has instigated initiatives to accelerate the development of solar energy on Western lands. About 670,000 acres currently administered by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah will be evaluated for the development of large-scale solar energy production. These areas of land will be reserved … Continue Reading
On April 10, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a request for various transmission infrastructure investment incentives submitted by Green Power Express LP (GPE), a transmission-only partnership that proposes to build a 765 kV "green superhighway" consisting of three interconnected loops in North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. GPE’s proposal will also extend radially … Continue Reading
