Following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2014 proposal to regulate carbon emissions from electric power plants and other major sources, federal energy regulators have scheduled a series of public technical conferences on how the Clean Power Plan may affect electric reliability, wholesale electric markets and operations, and energy infrastructure.
On Wednesday, January 28, as required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper announced the next step in the development of our nation’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022. The Draft Proposed Program (DPP) includes 14 potential lease sales in eight planning areas – 10 sales in the Gulf of Mexico, three off the coast of Alaska, and one in a portion of the Mid- and South Atlantic, which includes areas off the coast of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Oil prices surged following Saudi Arabia’s Royal Court announcement of the death of King Abdullah on Friday. Brent crude climbed as much as 2.6 percent, while West Texas Intermediate jumped 3.1 percent, following the announcement. It is yet to be seen whether Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest oil producer, will change its policies with respect to its oil output, but many analysts do not expect Saudi’s oil policies to change with the crowning of King Abdullah’s half-brother, Crown Prince Salman. In fact, Bloomberg reports that King Salman announced he will maintain the policies of his predecessor and that Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi will remain in his post.
The 2015-2016 session is now in officially in full swing. With the pomp and circumstance of Governor Wolf’s swearing in behind them, legislators started to get down to the nitty-gritty this week. The first order of business was committee reorganization; members were given their assignments, and committees held their inaugural meetings to adopt rules for the upcoming session. Between Wednesday and Thursday, some of the committees met to report out substantive legislation, with most of the action happening in the Senate.
On January 13, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2015-4 which specifies the performance and quality standards that small wind turbines must meet in order to qualify for the 30 percent investment tax credit (ITC).
Many issues facing FERC in 2014 have carried over to 2015. Topping the list is the uncertain future of demand response in wholesale electricity markets. Demand response’s future hinges on decisions at FERC, in the federal courts, and now in Congress. Last May, the D.C. Circuit voted 2 to 1 that FERC lacks jurisdiction over demand response in wholesale energy markets. This unexpectedly broad ruling rocked the electric industry, which had thought the court would merely rule on the reasonableness of FERC’s demand response compensation scheme. FERC asked all the D.C. Circuit judges to rehear the “EPSA decision,” but they declined to do so. On January 15, the U.S. Solicitor General will file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court, asking it to review EPSA. Others, including demand response providers and state public utility commissions, will also seek Supreme Court review. It is, of course, uncertain whether the Supreme Court will grant the petitions, and if it does, whether it will reverse EPSA.
The 20th Conference of the Parties (the COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the UNFCCC) and the 10th Conference serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (the CMP) concluded in Lima, Peru, on Sunday 14 December 2014 with a prevailing sense of déjà vu.
Although the NC General Assembly adjourned last summer it is customary to allow some laws that require lead time for implementation to go into effect on December 1st. The following is a list of NC laws that are new today:
