Its been 10 years since Cape Wind Associates, LLC originally proposed developing 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound and, after navigating successfully through a labyrinth of federal, state and local permitting and siting challenges and fending off the perfect storm of litigation, the winds may finally be blowing in Cape Wind’s direction. (Check out this link for a good history of Cape Wind, details on the project, and legal challenges and the controversies surrounding it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Wind). Even though now fully permitted for construction, however, the challenges...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed into law the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act Thursday, thereby endorsing an initiative designed to spur economic growth through the development of renewable energy and green jobs. Just as NJ has been a leader in providing substantial market-based economic support for solar energy through a rigorous solar renewable energy certificate, this new legislation is intended to establish an offshore wind renewable energy certificate program (OREC) to provide market support for wind energy.  The measure also provides offshore wind developers with financ...

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to roll out the details for the so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) tailoring rule, Step 1 of which is set to take effect on Jan. 2, 2011, EPA last week announced two expedited rulemakings designed to plug regulatory gaps that could impair the GHG Tailoring Rule’s implementation. EPA announced last week that 13 states have non-compliant state implementation plans (or SIPs) in that they do not clearly identify GHGs as pollutants subject to the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program permitting.  As a result, large existi...

It didn't take long for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Lisa Jackson, after the EPA's denial of the Chamber's petition was published in the Federal Register on August 13, 2010. That same day, the Chamber filed its petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. So the EPA's Endangerment Finding and Cause and Contribute Finding (which are regulatory prerequisites to the EPA using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases from new motor vehicle ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Friday denied 10 petitions for reconsideration of its Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. Led by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the petitions sought to put the brakes on EPA’s regulatory steps that would serve as the trigger for classifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.  Although Section 202(a) covers exhaust from new motor vehicles, regulating GHGs in this context has far broader implications because ot...