Courts
FERC Successfully Defends "Hybrid" Transitional Markets in New England
In a big win for FERC and supporters of electricity markets, on January 23, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s challenge to New England’s market design. The Attorney General and a group of New England industrial customers challenged FERC’s decisions approving a temporary “hybrid” market design [...]
Court Rules EPA Cannot Relax Strict Controls on Hazardous Air Emissions During Start-up, Shut-down and Malfunction
In a December 19 decision of potentially broad applicability to fossil fuel-fired electric generators, a divided (2-1) panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act when it adopted a final rule that would have lessened controls on emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) [...]
Too Much Adieu about Mobile-Sierra?
Did a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit bid adieu to the half century-old Mobile Sierra doctrine on contract stability when it otherwise affirmed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of a multi-party settlement that phases in a Forward Capacity Market in New England? Notwithstanding alarms to the [...]
DC Circuit Orders Immediate Tightening of Mercury Control Rules
On March 21, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made clear that its February 8, 2008 order mandating a return to tighter mercury control rules on coal-fired power plants must go into effect immediately. The court’s February order threw out the Bush Administration’s Clean Air Mercury [...]