EPA

LNG: FERC Asserts Control

CPUC questioned historic oversight authority.

The Sound Energy Solutions declaratory order clarified an important jurisdictional issue at a time when the United States is facing dwindling supplies of natural gas from traditional sources. While the order may ultimately be subject to judicial review, expeditious review and confirmation by the courts of the declaratory order may facilitate the development of new infrastructure and the expansion of existing LNG terminals.

Mercury Rising

How will the EPA's rulemaking affect U.S. energy markets?

EPA proposes a cap-and-trade program. How does that compare with a Maximum Achievable Control Technology standard?

Climate Change: The Heat Is On

From reporting to trading, utilities try to meet new expectations.

Implementing a strategy on climate change is a new sign of corporate responsibility, and utilities are responding in a variety of ways.

Generation Roundtable: Power Flux

Generators struggle to plan for the future as they cope with an unstable present.

In a roundtable discussion, generation experts explain how environmental regulations, industry restructuring, investor confidence, and the bottom line are affecting their decision-making.

Controversial New Source Review Rules Revised

Will the changes help or harm generators?

New rules revising the New Source Review (NSR) provision of the Clean Air Act recently were published. The action formalized a process begun several years earlier with the objective of bringing greater clarity to the rule. The new rule is aimed at allowing operators to upgrade equipment at existing power plants without triggering NSR.

What Do You Mean by Green?

Seemingly eco-friendly definitions can prevent adoption of renewable portfolio standards.

Seemingly eco-friendly definitions can prevent adoption of renewable portfolio standards.

The Blackout of 2003: Why We Fell Into The Heart of darkness

The road to the current reliability crisis is paved with four decades of bad policy decisions.

The road to the current reliability crisis is paved with four decades of bad policy decisions.

 

The technical causes of the great Northeast blackout of August 2003 are coming into focus. For reasons yet unknown as of press time, transmission lines in northern Ohio were lost to the grid, and within seconds 50 million people in the United States and Canada were without power. Soon we will no doubt know the specific reasons for the blackout, and technical corrections and improvements will be made.

People

People for September 2003.

New positions at Mirant, Chesapeake Utilities, Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners, and others.

Benchmarks

Significant obstacles stand in the way of achieving cost savings that should accrue to market-based emissions trading policies.