Energy Legal Blog

On May 19, 2011, the West Virginia Air Quality Board granted a directed verdict to Appalachia Midstream Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy, dismissing an appeal challenging its Clean Air Act permits for its development in West Virginia.  The verdict sends a positive signal to the oil and gas industry in the United States.   (more…)

FERC recently issued orders in two fully adjudicated cases of alleged market manipulation.  In one FERC affirmed a judge’s finding of manipulation in connection with the sale or purchase of natural gas in violation of §4A of the Natural Gas Act and assessed a $30 million civil penalty; in the other FERC affirmed another judge’s finding that the complainants failed to prove manipulation in violation of §222 of the Federal Power Act in connection with the purchase and sale of electric energy. 

Although a number of other allegations of manipulation have settled with no admissions or findings of guilt or innocence, these two recent FERC precedents provide the most complete insights to date into how the agency will exercise the enhanced authority conferred on it in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to prosecute the use or employment of any “device, scheme or artifice to defraud,” the making of an untrue statement of material fact or omitting to state a material fact, or engaging in an act, practice or course of business that “operates as a fraud or deceit” in connection with the purchase or sale or transportation/transmission of natural gas or electric energy. (more…)

Fossil fuels are under fire from opponents of hydraulic fracturing in the gas drilling process or, in coal’s case, everything from mountaintop mining to mercury emissions. And now with the crisis in Japan, nuclear power is facing new challenges. Of course that leaves renewables such as solar, hydro and wind. Wind power itself has been one of the bright spots in the electricity sector. But recently, many projects have faced significant challenges over financing, viewshed issues and wildlife. Yet despite these woes and a new documentary film making a “Gasland“-like run through film festivals, wind continues to grow.

In early April, a Midwestern public utility terminated agreements with a developer for a 150-MW wind energy project in North Dakota over concerns about mitigating impacts on birds, much to the delight of bird groups that have long been aggressive opponents of wind. The bottom line: everyone wants to make wind energy benefit people and communities without endangering wildlife, but finding that balancing point has proven increasingly sticky. (more…)