Energy Legal Blog

"Resource for updates and analysis on national and regional energy issues."

Author: Dan Watkiss and Sandy Rizzo are partners at Bracewell & Giuliani in Washington, D.C.; Frank V. Maisano is a consultant at Bracewell & Giuliani in Washington, D.C.; Tracy Davis, Bill Wolf and M. Andrew McLain are associates at Bracewell & Giuliani in Washington, D.C.; and Amanda J. Frazier is an associate for Bracewell & Giuliani in Austin, Texas.

Blawg Related Categories: Energy Law • States • California • Texas • Associate • Consultant • Partner

Recent Posts from Energy Legal Blog

Impediment to In House Attorneys Offering Services to Transmission and Marketing Affiliates
FERC Order No. 717-A purports to “clarify” FERC’s Standards of Conduct governing the relationship between transmission providers and their marketing affiliates by limiting the ability of certain utility legal, finance and regulatory employees to serve…
Fifth Circuit Decision Threatens a Tsunami of Climate Change Tort Cases While the Defense Bar Awaits a Circuit Split
On October 16, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit revived a lawsuit filed by residents and property owners along the Mississippi Gulf coast against several corporations in the energy, fossil fuels…
No Longer Whether, but Only How Will US Choose To Control Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Both the US Senate and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on September 30 moved ahead with programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Which program goes into effect will determine whether those emissions are controlled pursuant to…
US v. Radley Pares Enforcement Authority Under the Commodities Exchange Act
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas dismissed a twenty-six-count indictment that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Justice Department had brought against four former BP traders for allegedly attempting to manipulate the TET…
Industry Awaits Obama Administration Decisions on Offshore Oil Exploration
On September 21, the comment period ended for the Department of the Interior’s Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2010-2015 (DPP). The DPP would replace the current program covering…
EPA Issues Final Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule
EPA’s new GHG Inventory Rule is now final and will require prompt attention by many business sectors to help ensure compliance effective January 2010. The rule establishes the most sweeping monitoring and reporting regime in…
NIST Seeks Public Comment on Smart Grid Framework
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the US Department of Commerce on September 24 released its first round of almost 80 draft “Smart Grid” standards, which are intended to establish a framework…
State Regulators Continue Battles Against Federally-Approved Capacity Markets Despite Recent Setbacks
Maryland and New Jersey’s state utility boards August 24 petitioned the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to review FERC’s approval of PJM’s initial Reliability Pricing Model (RPM) capacity auctions. The state regulators,…
Apex Oil: Environmental Cleanup Liability Survives Bankruptcy
In U.S. v. Apex Oil, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit ruled 3-0 that EPA’s cleanup injunction against the corporate successor to a chemical company was not discharged in Chapter 11 because the injunction…
FCC Seeks Comment on Smart Grid Technologies
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 directed the Federal Communications Commission to develop a National Broadband Plan. To help develop that plan, the FCC has requested comment on how advanced telecommunications services and…