Hydrogen has been widely touted as a solution to achieve ambitious emissions reduction goals. But in order to unleash hydrogen’s potential as a viable energy source to meet current targets, it needs to be produced in larger...more
Virginia became the second state in the United States, after California, to pass a comprehensive data privacy law when the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA) passed both houses of the state legislature in February...more
6/15/2021
/ CDPA ,
Compliance Management Systems ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Data Controller ,
Data Management ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Electricity ,
New Legislation ,
Opt-Outs ,
Personal Data ,
Virginia
As has been reported, a recent ransomware attack has caused an interstate pipeline and fuel supplier to much of the eastern United States to shut down its operations. Although the attack did not compromise operational...more
5/13/2021
/ Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Hackers ,
Homeland Security Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) ,
National Security ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Popular ,
Ransomware ,
Supply Chain
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on February 24 to address possible vulnerabilities in the supply chains of critical national economic sectors, including the energy sector. ...more
FERC issued a pair of orders terminating, or upholding the termination of, proceedings designed to evaluate the resiliency of the electric grid on February 18. Both proceedings arose from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s)...more
On February 17, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took the extraordinary measure of directing the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) to restrict out-of-state exports of natural gas produced in Texas through February 21. Noting the...more
In May 2020, US President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13920, banning the unrestricted import or use of certain categories of bulk-power system electric equipment from foreign adversaries, with a focus on Russian and...more
2/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
China ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Reform ,
Executive Orders ,
Imports ,
Infrastructure ,
Public Procurement Policies ,
Russia ,
Supply Chain ,
Trump Administration
During its January open meeting, FERC issued an order directing independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) to submit informational reports regarding co-located generation resources. ...more
President Joe Biden issued a series of executive orders on January 27 to further confront the “existential threat” of climate change, to reaffirm the executive branch’s commitment to evidence-based policymaking and...more
At its December open meeting, FERC proposed to establish rules for incentive-based rate treatments for voluntary cybersecurity investments by a public utility. If approved, the regulations would provide incentives for...more
Following its December 17 open meeting, FERC issued an order withdrawing and terminating a proceeding that had been opened earlier this year to examine oil pipeline affiliate contracts. FERC initiated that proceeding on...more
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released the Hydrogen Program Plan, a strategic framework that intends to “accelerate research, development, and deployment (RD&D) of hydrogen and related technologies in the United...more
Following significant pushback from the regulated community, FERC and NERC Staff jointly announced in a new white paper that filings and other submissions to FERC describing violations of cybersecurity reliability standards...more
Under Order No. 2222, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hopes to “usher in the electric grid of the future” by opening wholesale markets to distributed energy resource aggregations. ...more
FERC has issued a final rule, Order No. 872, revising the Commission’s regulations governing qualifying small power producers and co-generators (collectively, qualifying facilities or QFs) under the Public Utility Regulatory...more
The latest action by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dismisses an advocacy group’s request that FERC assert jurisdiction over net-metering transactions on procedural grounds, leaving important legal and...more
On July 10, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was well within its rights to prevent states from prohibiting energy storage resources from participating in wholesale...more
At its June 18 open meeting, FERC issued a notice of inquiry seeking public input on cybersecurity-related enhancements to the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards. In light of the constantly...more
FERC issued a proposal on May 21 to modify its policy regarding requests for waiver of public utility tariff provisions that are subject to FERC’s review and approval under the Federal Power Act and the Natural Gas Act....more
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 declaring that the use of bulk-power system equipment supplied by companies controlled by certain foreign nations poses an extraordinary threat to the US power grid....more
A nonprofit advocacy group recently asked FERC to overturn a policy that has been in effect for more than a decade and assert jurisdiction over energy sales from rooftop solar facilities and other distributed generation...more
In an order issued on April 17, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to defer implementation of certain cybersecurity and operational reliability standards administered by the North American Electric...more
The US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued Version 3.0 of its guidance on April 17 on identifying essential critical infrastructure workers amid the coronavirus...more
FERC and NERC issued a joint notice on Wednesday providing compliance flexibility on certain key reliability standard requirements during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. ...more
FERC and NERC issued a joint notice on Wednesday providing compliance flexibility on certain key reliability standard requirements during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic....more