On January 30, 2012, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC
or Commission) Staff issued a white paper outlining a proposal to
guide the Commission in advising the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) on requests for administrative orders (AOs) extending
the time for power plants to comply with EPA's Mercury and Air
Toxics Standards (MATS) based on system reliability
concerns.1 EPA stated in a Final Rule that, in
considering such requests, it will seek advice from FERC as well as
certain other entities with reliability expertise.2 FERC
Staff recommends that requests for AOs be filed with the FERC
Secretary's office on an informational basis and assigned to
the Office of Electric Reliability (OER). OER would consider
whether discontinuing operations of the generating unit in question
would result in a Reliability Standard violation....
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") issued a Notice of Inquiry on April 19th ("NOI") seeking comment on its policy regarding capacity priority rights and open access on developer-owned interconnection facilities that connect generation facilities to the integrated transmission grid ("Interconnection Facilities").
At FERC’s open meeting on April 19, 2012, FERC approved several orders addressing core aspects of Reliability Standards compliance, including cybersecurity Reliability Standards, compliance registration, and contingency planning issues.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC"), on April 19, 2012, approved the eight modified Critical Infrastructure Protection ("CIP") Reliability Standards, CIP-002-4 through CIP-009-4 ("Version 4 CIP Standards"), which were developed and submitted for approval by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC") ("Final Order").
On May 4, 2012, the US Bureau of Land Management ("BLM" or the "Bureau"), which is part of the Department of the Interior, released its proposed rule for regulating hydraulic fracturing on public and Indian lands. As expected, the proposal addresses public disclosure of fracturing fluid constituents, well-bore integrity, and wastewater management.
On April 20, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") issued an order accepting proposed revisions to the WSPP Agreement addressing sales of renewable energy certificates ("RECs") made pursuant to that agreement.
The U.S. lags behind Europe in the development of offshore wind (OSW) projects in part due to the lack of a mandatory national renewable energy standard and other tax incentives.
On April 27, 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) proposed final regulations governing the eligibility of biomass energy for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for compliance with the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS).