By Sara Orr, Bobbi-Jo Dobush and Francesca Bochner On November 28, 2016, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) simplified Integrated Interagency Pre-Application (IIP) Process will go into effect.[i] The IIP is a voluntary, pre-application process intended to streamline and improve the permitting and siting process for qualifying electric transmission projects. In an effort to increase efficiency, the … Continue Reading
By Sara Orr and Bobbi-Jo Dobush On July 7, 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced its Record of Decision (ROD) for the Upper Great Plains Wind Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).[1] This is the final step in a process that US FWS, along with Western Area Power Administration (Western), embarked upon in … Continue Reading
By Michael Gergen, David Pettit and Tara Rice On June 16, 2016, the White House hosted a Summit on Scaling Renewable Energy and Storage with Smart Markets. As a backdrop to the Summit, the Obama Administration announced new executive actions and 33 public and private sector commitments intended to accelerate the grid integration of renewable … Continue Reading
By Michael J. Gergen, Joshua T. Bledsoe, David E. Pettit and Tara L. Rice President Obama recently announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Program Office (LPO) is expanding support for innovative “distributed energy projects” by adding $1 billion in available loan guarantees to support the deployment of these projects through the existing solicitations for … Continue Reading
By Andrea Hogan and Joshua Marnitz On May 6, 2015, the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted 12-1 in favor of a bill designed to streamline the Federal permitting process for major energy and infrastructure projects. The bill, first introduced in January 2015 by Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill … Continue Reading
by David Pettit On August 1, 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Resolving Environmental and Grid Reliability Conflicts Act of 2012 (H.R. 4273) with broad bipartisan support to address the unenviable position of power plants that could become subject to liability under the Clean Air Act for complying with an order to operate … Continue Reading
By Laura Godfrey, Joshua Marnitz and Janice Schneider On July 27, 2012, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as joint lead agencies announced the availability of the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States (Final Solar PEIS). 77 Fed. Reg. 44267 (July … Continue Reading
By Michael Feeley and Aron Potash A lawsuit which delayed and once threatened to dismantle California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) cap and trade scheme was largely resolved last week, removing one roadblock to California’s plan to be the first state to impose an economy-wide GHG trading program. Under modified regulations adopted by the California Air Resources … Continue Reading
The Strategic Plan released on May 10 by the U.S. Department of Energy combines a mix of aggressive short-term targets for the deployment of renewable energy and installation of energy efficiency measures and longer-term goals to drive innovation. Key near-term objectives contained in the plan include doubling renewable energy generation in the United States by … Continue Reading
Less than a week after winning Congressional approval for a $180 million appropriation for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year for DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E), DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced five new project areas on Wednesday, April 20, to be funded through ARPA-E. Of ARPA-E’s $180 million budget for FY 2011, Secretary Chu … Continue Reading
By Eli W.L. Hopson On April 14, the House and Senate passed, and on April 15, President Obama signed into law, the final Continuing Resolution (CR) for the remainder of FY 2011. Section 1425 of the CR makes important modifications regarding the authority of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to provide loan guarantees under … Continue Reading
By L&W Energy Attorneys On March 31, 2011 Jonathan Silver, the Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO), testified in front of the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee to discuss the LPO’s recent accomplishments and its 2012 budget requests. Silver stressed that the deployment of commercially-ready clean … Continue Reading
By Linda Schilling, Charity Gilbreth, and Shirin Forootan On April 14, 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) will hold a public meeting in Washington, DC to solicit comments on proposed changes to the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC). There are approximately 1400 proposed changes addressing a … Continue Reading
Clean energy projects have tremendous potential to create jobs and grow the economy and help the nation meet its energy needs in a more sustainable way, but regulatory and legal barriers to energy projects have substantially reduced job creation and economic growth while impeding efforts to bring new energy generation facilities on line, according to … Continue Reading
A recent brief by the Center for American Progress (CAP) –“Invest in America’s Clean Energy Future”–advocating against substantial cuts in funding for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee program proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives provides interesting and heretofore not publicly known details about the pipeline for projects seeking guarantees under Section … Continue Reading
Clean energy development and deployment was one of the central themes of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. The President urged Americans “to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world” and stressed that, with respect to clean energy, “this is our generation’s Sputnik moment.” President Obama emphasized two clean energy-related goals … Continue Reading
Eight Years. That’s how long it took what will likely be the nation’s first offshore wind farm to obtain a federal lease. It is little wonder, in light of Cape Wind’s struggle, that wind advocates have been pushing for greater federal support. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of the … Continue Reading
As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Act), the Department of Energy (DOE) was directed to identify NIETCs—which are essentially corridors with a pressing need for more transmission capacity for electricity. The Act allows utilities a fast-track approval process for permits for transmission lines within an NIETC. Notably, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission … Continue Reading
On September 7, 2010 Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the issuance of the first loan guarantee under the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP). The DOE issued the partial guarantee for a $98.5 million loan being made by John Hancock Financial Services to a subsidiary of the Nevada Geothermal Power Company (NGP) … Continue Reading
