“Dealing with the climate crisis involves the overhauling of many facets of life, but few of these changes will feel as tangible and personal as the transformation required within the home. The 128m households that dot America gobble up energy for heating, cooling and lighting,” reports Rashida Kamal and Oliver Milman in The Guardian.

“More energy hungry dwellings than people in other countries, using more than double the energy of the average Briton and 10 times that of the average Chinese person. This sizable contribution is now coming under the scrutiny of Joe Biden’s administration, which recently put forward a raft of measures to build and upgrade.”

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“Siemens Energy ENR1n.DE cranked up the pressure on wind turbine division Siemens Gamesa SGREN.MC on Wednesday, saying it was extremely annoying that it was forced to slash its profit outlook because of the Spanish listed unit. The comments from CEO Christian Bruch highlight the problems around the arm’s length relationship he inherited after Siemens Energy’s spin-off from,” report Christoph Steitz, Tom Kackenhoff and Isla Binnie in Reuters.

“Bruch, 51, said slow progress in tackling problems at Siemens Gamesa’s onshore business, coupled with a lack of transparency, were the main issues that needed fixing. The onshore area is absolutely not satisfying, Bruch told journalists after unveiling a net loss and 37 drop in orders for the third quarter, blaming a weak performance at Siemens Gamesa, in which Siemens Energy owns 67.”

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“Energy is a good place to look for yield. Six of the top 11 stocks with the highest dividends within the SP 500 index are in the energy group, according to data from SP Dow Jones Indices. The yields on those half dozen companies range from 5.4 to 7. The entire sector yields about 4 based on the Energy Select Sector SPDR ticker XLE exchange-traded fund, which holds the energy stocks in the SP 500,” reports Andrew Bary in their Barrons.

“The half dozen energy high-yielders are led by pipeline operators Oneok OKE, Williams Cos. WMB, and Kinder Morgan KMI. All three are structured as corporations, meaning investors get 1099 tax forms and not the widely disliked K-1 forms issued by pipeline operators structured as limited partnerships. With the strength in energy prices, dividends look secure at Exxon Mobil and Chevron and the pipeline companies.”

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“TC Energy Corporation stated that it filed a notice of intent with the U.S. Department of State that it will make a claim against the U.S. under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The claim will be based on President Biden’s January 2021 revocation of TC Energy’s Keystone XL Pipeline permit,” reports Hunter Chauvin in The Energy Law Blog.

“NAFTA allowed for investors to seek arbitration against political states for certain mistreatment. See NAFTA at Chapter 11. That mistreatment could include a nation treating an investor of another nation less favorably than it treats its own investors (national mistreatment), treating an investor of another nation less favorably than an investor of a different nation (most-favored-nation mistreatment), not according an investor equal treatment under international law, or improperly expropriating an investment. See NAFTA at articles 1102, 1103, 1105, & 1110, respectively.”

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“The Laguna Beach City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to pursue joining a renewable energy program, setting the city up to potentially leave Southern California Edison as soon as the end of this year. Community choice energy programs, or CCEs, are electric utilities set up by local governments that take over buying energy for their residents, giving more options for homeowners who want to buy,” reports Noah Biesiada in Voice Of OC.

“Any resident can opt out if they want to remain with their original service provider and are not required to increase the amount of renewable energy they use. Depending on what choices the program offers, homeowners can purchase a mix of fossil fuels and renewable energy or go 100% renewable. Just last year, some cities in Orange County created their own community choice energy agency, with Irvine, Huntington Beach.”

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“Entrepreneur Donnel Baird wants to bring green ways of building to communities of color in the United States who are often the last to benefit from sustainability initiatives. After seeing Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth in college, Baird decided on his mission to tackle both climate change,” reports Alicia Powell in Reuters.

“His company BlocPower helps small apartment buildings and other urban structures become more energy efficient. He wants all communities to benefit from the transition to cleaner energy, he said. Who gets those jobs? Who gets the wealth that gets created from that transition? Baird said. As people of color, are we going to be at the forefront of that or are we going to be like left behind? I think we should lead it.”

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“The rolling blackouts that cut electricity for tens of thousands of Spokane, Washington, residents amid this week’s record breaking heat wave mostly hit the same power customers repeatedly because of strains on equipment that couldn’t handle the blistering temperatures, utility officials said,” reports CBS News in their blog.

“And there was plenty of power available for customers in Spokane despite increased demand. That’s in contrast to the blackouts imposed in Texas last winter amid freezing temperatures, when there wasn’t enough electricity to meet the demand, and during a hot spell in California last summer.”

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“When considering the US transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, it is helpful to look at a country further along than our own. Norway has some significant commonalities with the US most importantly, both countries are oil and gas rich. Yet Norway exports most of its fossil fuels, while the US consumes most of theirs These two countries, both rich in oil and gas, face a giant challenge of divesting from fossil fuel production to lower greenhouse gas emissions,” reports Ian Palmer in Forbes.

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“California’s power grid operator said Monday it does not anticipate rotating outages but urged customers to prepare to conserve energy during the coming heatwave. We are headed into some record-breaking high heat territory, and we may call a Flex Alert if needed, Anne Gonzales, a spokesperson for California Independent System Operator, which oversees most of the state’s electric grid,” reports Reuters in their blog.

“We are working to give the public as much advance notice as possible,” Gonzales said, noting we believe that consumer conservation saved us from extended and more severe rotating outages, both in August and September in 2020.Last summer, a heatwave in August forced California utilities to impose rotating blackouts that left over 400,000 homes and businesses without power for up to 2-1/2 hours when energy supplies ran short.”

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“On June 8, 2021, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a Request for Interest (RFI) to assess interest in possible commercial wind energy leasing in the Gulf of Mexico OCS. BOEM will consider the information received in response to the RFI to determine whether to schedule a competitive lease sale or issue a noncompetitive lease for any portion of the area descried in the RFI. The area covered by the RFI comprises the entire Central Planning Area and Western Planning Area of the Gulf of Mexico, excluding portions of those areas located in water depths greater than 1,300 meters,” writes Stephen Wiegand in Lex Blog.

“Issuance of the RFI comes in advance of the first scheduled meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force on June 15, 2021. The focus of the meeting is to facilitate coordination among federal, state, local, and tribal governments regarding the wind energy leasing process in the Gulf of Mexico.”

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“Exelon Corp. is positioned to receive as much as $1 billion over a five-year period for two of its nuclear power locations as part of ongoing talks to complete major energy legislation in Illinois, according to four sources familiar with the negotiations,” writes Stephen Joyce in Bloomberg Law.

“Subsidies for a two-unit, 2,347-megawatt station near Byron, Ill. and a two-unit, 1,845-megawatt Dresden generating station in Morris, Ill. are one component of larger, complex negotiations among environmental groups, state lawmakers, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), and several utilities to revise the state’s energy policies. Support for the facilities could be determined by the use of “carbon mitigation credits,” according to a report published Friday by ClearView Energy Partners LLC research analyst Timothy Fox and others. The credit value would be reactor-specific and based on nonpublic financial information, the report said.”

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“As a dispatchable renewable energy technology, hydropower has a significant role to play in the energy transition. The growing penetration of intermittent renewable energy on many grids has increased the need for ancillary services such as frequency regulation. The fast response times and high ramp rates of hydropower make it well suited to provide these services, enabling further penetration by other renewable energy resources. Although relatively few hydroelectric projects have been developed as independent power projects (“IPPs”), the growing value of hydroelectric resources in facilitating the energy transition is likely to change that,” writes Ryan T. Ketchum in Hunton Andrews Kurth Insights.

“The structure of tariffs for large scale hydroelectric IPPs has a significant impact on the bankability of these projects. This article examines the principal options for structuring tariffs for both storage and run of river hydroelectric projects.”

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“The Jones Act dates back to 1920 and governs the rules around shipping and trade in the U.S. and its island territories, with an aim of protecting American business from foreign competition,” report Joy Wiltermuth and Myra P. Saefong in MarketWatch’s Market Extra.

“The law has been waived several times in the past, specifically in response to crises like hurricanes along the Gulf Coast and other events, said Jason Bordoff, co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School.”

“The U.S. government waived it in November 2012, after Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast, causing power outages and fuel shortages.”

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“Law firms in the heartland of Big Oil are racking up dollars by going green, as investors and companies spur them to grow their renewable energy practices,” reports Nushin Hug in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“Houston-based Vinson and Elkins LLP represented 20 large investor clients over the past 18 months, compared with only five or six in the months previous to that, said Kaam Sahely, head of the firm’s renewables practice in Austin, Texas. Projects included Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s acquisition from Recurrent Energy of 300MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plus storage project in California.”

“Firms that used to mainly take on solar and wind projects are growing their renewables practices by taking on technologies such as battery storage, hydrogen, carbon capture, and renewable diesel and natural gas. They’re adding attorneys and making acquisitions to keep up with the demand, especially as traditional oil and gas companies make more investments.”

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“Dakota Access pipeline lawyers are heading to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight a ruling that required additional environmental review for the embattled oil project and left it vulnerable to a potential shutdown,” reports Ellen M. Gilmer in Bloomberg Law’s US Law Week.

“Lawyers on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to freeze a mandate that would lock in its January ruling that the Energy Transfer LP pipeline was approved without proper study under the National Environmental Policy Act.”

“Once filed, the petition is expected to present the Supreme Court with a question about the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act. The D.C. Circuit said the Army Corps of Engineers fell short of NEPA when it opted for a more streamlined approach to environmental review despite expert disagreement about the potential impacts of an oil spill on neighboring Native American tribes.”

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“Expect big expansion in the use of clean hydrogen energy—that has been a periodic mantra in the climate change press for years. While commercial scale development continues to face serious technical and cost barriers, there now may be reason for optimism,” write Gerald F. George, Richard M. Glick, and William M. Friedman in Davis Wright Tremaine’s blog.

“The use of hydrogen as an energy source is not new, but is limited. It accounts for about 2 percent of current energy use in the United States. To that end, expanding that use to positively affect climate change would require more than simply increasing the supply.”

“Until recently, hydrogen as a fuel has been primarily developed by steam reforming of a feedstock, with the carbon emissions dependent upon the feedstock. Typically, the feedstock would be natural gas, producing what is commonly referred to as “blue hydrogen” (if coal is the feedstock, “brown” hydrogen). Thus, while the use of hydrogen produces no carbon emissions, the production of the hydrogen itself typically results in significant carbon emissions, although the volume may be reduced through carbon capture.”

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“In Sundown Energy LP, et al. v. HJSA No. 3, Ltd. P’ship the term ‘drilling operations’ meant that activities other than spudding-in new wells were sufficient to satisfy a continuous operations clause,” write Charles Sartain and Rusty Tucker Gray Reed’s Energy and the Law.

“In a lease in Ward County, 19,570 acres from the surface to the base of the Pennsylvanian formation were ‘Producing Areas’. The remainder covered all depths as to 10,880 acres plus depths in the Producing Areas below the Pennsylvanian. During the primary term, production in paying quantities from anywhere on the leased premises would maintain the entire lease. At the end of the primary term lessee Sundown was required to reassign its rights in each tract not then held by production unless Sundown was engaged in a ‘continuous drilling program.'”

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“The threat of a shutdown still looms over Energy Transfer LP’s Dakota Access pipeline even after the Biden administration announced it wouldn’t take action against the project,” reports Ellen M. Gilmer in Bloomberg Law’s US Law Week.

“The Army Corps of Engineers revealed its position Friday during a hearing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying it won’t take action against the oil pipeline ‘at this time.'”

“But the agency left open the possibility of future enforcement, which could include ordering Dakota Access to halt service, as it monitors the pipeline’s compliance with safety conditions after two courts determined the project had been permitted in violation of federal environmental law.”

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“Tom Farrell, who led Dominion Energy for more than a decade and was a powerful force in Virginia business and politics, died Friday, one day after stepping down from his post as the company’s executive chairman. He was 66,” reports The Associated Press in ABC News.

“A news release from the utility said Farrell, who served as the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer from 2007 to 2020, had been battling cancer, which took a sudden turn in recent weeks.”

“Farrell spent more than 15 years practicing law before joining Dominion Energy as general counsel in 1995. Over the next nine years, he served in several senior management positions at the company. Farrell was named president and chief operating officer in 2004, and president and chief executive officer in 2006. He was elected chairman in 2007, a post he held until Thursday.”

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“On March 18, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued an order on rehearing of its landmark final rule, Order No. 2222, pertaining to the participation of distributed energy resources (“DER”) through an aggregator in FERC-jurisdictional Regional Transmission Organization (“RTO”) and Independent System Operator (“ISO”) organized markets.[1] While FERC largely kept Order No. 2222 intact, Order No. 2222-A did refine and clarify certain aspects of Order No. 2222,” discusses Blake Urban in Bracewell’s Energy Legal Blog.

“The significant refinements made through Order No. 2222-A include:

• Refinements on information sharing and the review process associated with qualification of DER to participate in the wholesale markets through an aggregator by distribution utilities;
• A holding that demand response that is included in heterogeneous aggregation (i.e., the DER aggregation is not solely composed of demand response resources as the type of DER) will not be subject to the “opt-out” and “opt-in” requirements established by Order Nos. 719 and 719-A for demand response;
• A finding that FERC’s interconnection policies pertaining to Qualifying Facilities (“QFs”) do not apply to QFs requesting interconnection if that QF only seeks to participate in the RTO/ISO wholesale markets through a DER aggregator; and
• Clarifications on restrictions to avoid double counting of services.”

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