Navigating Power Allocation and Customer Choice in a Regulated Landscape - Energy Law Insights
Distributed Generation 2.0: What You Need to Know
May I Inquire? The Michael Silver pLAWdcast - Episode 2 - Melissa Seixas (Duke Energy)
How the $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan Affects Texas
Nota Bene Episode 97: The Seismic Changes Renewables Are Bringing to Energy Transmission and Its Infrastructure with Mark Sundback
The United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce held a March 5th hearing entitled: Scaling for Growth: Meeting the Demand for Reliable, Affordable Electricity (“Hearing”)....more
On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court overruled Chevron in Loper-Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, fundamentally altering the judicial approach to agency interpretations of the law, particularly when assessing an agency’s scope...more
The story of artificial intelligence (“AI”) is one of technological promise and societal challenge, and its impact on the U.S. electric power grid is fast becoming a pivotal chapter. The promise is compelling. AI could...more
Welcome to this month's edition of Plugged In. In this issue, we focus on the complex challenges facing electric utilities in addressing the critical need to adequately generate and transmit electricity to power the...more
As part of the Biden Administration’s efforts to align energy cybersecurity efforts across the country, the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) has funded the release of a set of energy distribution cybersecurity baselines for...more
Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD)’s 2024 Energy Transition Outlook Survey Report points to a new phase in the multi-generational journey to Net Zero. While 56% of our respondents are deepening their focus on their transition...more
As discussed previously in this blog, physical attacks against substations have been on the rise. However, the U.S. power grid is also vulnerable to cyberattacks from U.S. adversaries, which includes hostile foreign...more
At the conclusion of a hotly contested Texas 88th Regular Legislative Session, the Texas Legislature has passed, and Governor Abbott has signed into law, two major pieces of legislation that could have substantial impacts on...more
The 88th regular session of the Texas Legislature saw an unusually high number of proposed bills with a stated focus of ensuring reliability of the Texas grid and favoring “dispatchable generation” (having output within human...more
Although that new smart refrigerator might seem like a fun gadget and great way to sync up grocery lists, smart appliances have the potential to become vectors in malicious power grid attacks. Or what about the increasingly...more
Monday, May 29, 2023, marked the official end of the 88th regular session of the Texas Legislature. It was an especially active session for the energy industry, which saw the passage of several bills that, if signed into law...more
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal President Joe Biden's suspension of tariffs on solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations, a measure aimed at supporting the small domestic manufacturing industry....more
In an ambitious step toward New York state’s climate goals, the New York State Climate Action Council approved a Scoping Plan on December 19, 2022, which sets forth a series of recommended policies and actions. The 445-page...more
● Offshore Oil and Gas at Risk of Potentially Catastrophic Cyberattack: GAO - “The industry includes about 1,600 offshore oil and gas facilities that are highly dependent on remotely connected operational technology, the...more
On September 8, the White House published a report (“Climate-Crypto Report”) on Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States, which was followed by a detailed Fact Sheet summarizing the findings in...more
United States Senate negotiators reached an agreement on July 27th on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (“IRA”). The 725-page bill would use fiscal year 2021 reconciliation instructions to raise revenue in order to fund...more
The second meeting of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s (ERCOT) Large Flexible Load Task Force (LFLTF) facilitated an opportunity for ERCOT, ERCOT market participants (MPs), and bitcoin miners to get to know one...more
Effective March 25, 2022, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”) began requiring documentation from large electrical loads like cryptocurrency miners before allowing them to connect to the Texas power grid....more
Continued Threats of Ransomware Attacks - As we reported in our 2021 Year in Preview series, we began 2021 anticipating that ransomware would be a serious threat to critical energy infrastructure. These concerns were...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is tasked with keeping our electric grid safe and maintaining reliable and secure energy for U.S. consumers. ...more
President Joseph Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the Act) on November 15, 2021, which allocates $550 billion in new spending over the next five years to improve US infrastructure,...more
LANDMARK BILL REPRESENTS A MAJOR COMPONENT OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION'S BUILD BACK BETTER AGENDA - On November 5, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan $1.2 trillion “physical” infrastructure bill, paving...more
On November 5, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill that will make historic investments in core infrastructure priorities including roads and bridges, rail, transit, ports,...more
On Aug. 10, 2021, the Senate passed the infrastructure bill, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in a 69-30 vote. The bill will now wait for consideration in the House of Representatives. The total cost...more
As we begin to better understand the main components of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that the US Senate is working to pass this week, it is clear that public-private partnerships ("P3s") are a favored funding...more