When the draft of EPA's Clean Power Plan was promulgated in the Federal Register last June, one of the critical questions raised by those in the electricity space was: what about reliability? If you shut down all those coal plants, will you have enough generation from other sources to keep the lights on? Even if you have enough generation, will you have enough natural gas at the times and places when you need it? Is there enough time to get the needed generation and resources in place under EPA's schedule?

Some say you can't go back, but last week, I did go back -- to Austin, Texas, where I went to law school. Things changed -- the east side has been gentrified, the traffic is horrendous, and Molly Ivins is gone – and are much the same – including that having the legislature in session makes for some interesting headlines.

This morning found us at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, hoping to take in the oral argument before the DC Circuit in the first (of what is certain to be many) challenge to the Clean Power Plan: In re Murray Energy Corp. Murray Energy is the largest privately owned coal company in the country and was joined by another coal company, twelve States and numerous amici. It sued last June and claimed, under the All Writs Act, that it would be irreparably harmed by the immense dislocation to be precipitated by EPA's planned move from coal to natural gas, nuclear power, renewable energy and efficiency (i.e., the Clean Power Plan) and, therefore, the Court should stop EPA's plan in its tracks.

So what day would you pick to have your flood insurance premium double? April Fool's Day? You got it. Well, that's a little hyperbolic. Rates aren't doubling instantaneously tomorrow. Instead they are rising between 10% and 18% per year until they match commercial rates. There is a set of exceptions to the 18% cap. There can be up to a 25% increase on non-primary residences, so-called "severe repetitive loss" properties and substantially-damaged / substantially-improved properties. Other change...

Despite ranking third in the nation for rooftop solar potential, the "Sunshine State" is 13th in cumulative solar capacity installed (dreary New Jersey is 3rd). This is the result of a state without a renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS) that does not permit power purchase agreements (PPAs) (Florida is one of only five states that explicitly prohibits anyone other than the big utilities from selling power). Depending on whom you ask, Florida's lack of solar infrastructure is either caused by the "monopoly" held by the State's big power companies, or the simple viewpoint that solar is a s...

It’s been a long winter in my neck of the woods and not because Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.  Pipes froze.  Twice.  Furnace was out overnight.  Broke three shovels.  So I had a particular interest this past Wednesday, March 11, in FERC’s Eastern Regional Technical Conference on EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) and FERC’s and EPA’s takes on reliability issues.   After the introductions EPA Assistant Administrator Janet McCabe led off with the same position she had delivered at the Opening Conference, which is someth...

Last week, FERC held the eastern regional technical conference on “Environmental Regulations and Electric Reliability, Wholesale Electricity Markets, and Energy Infrastructure.”  The purpose was for the commissioners to hear the specific issues created by EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) relevant to the states, utilities, generators, consumers and transmission operators covered by ISO-New England, Inc., PJM Interconnection LLC, New York Independent System Operator, the Southeastern Regional Transmission Planning, South Carolina Regional Transmission Planning, Florida Reliabi...

This week, the Chicago Tribune reports that the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) filed a petition with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) to require Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) to offer its customers the opportunity to participate in a three-year "community solar" pilot program. Just to get the players straight: ComEd is a regulated electric utility which services close to four million customers in northern Illinois. The CUB is the statutory representative of Illinois utility customers in all proceedings before the commission and federal agen...

When one talks of pipelines in recent days one hears nearly an incessant buzz about Keystone XL, as if that is where the real action is. But it isn't, notwithstanding the histrionics over President Obama's veto of S.1, the Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act. The real action lies not with an 850,000 barrel per day oil pipeline, but instead with the natural gas pipelines that are needed to supply the natural gas electricity generating plants that will be required to replace, in part, 103 gigawatts of coal powered generation. What are we talking about? Building Block 2 of EPA's Clean Power Plan&n...

Because I had a seat inside the meeting room at FERC's Clean Power Plan Overview last Thursday, I got a close-up view of the protesters.  Most were older (as opposed to the college-student variety), they carried signs, wore matching red t-shirts and, after the first panel concluded, began to chant, “gas is dirty.”  Though none of them explained what they meant, and the speakers so far had not focused on Building Block 2 (shifting dispatch from coal to natural gas combined-cycle generators), most of the rest of the crowd understood that they were protesting the Clean Power...