MorganEnergy

Just when the solar industry thought it was ready to take off, a huge road block has been placed in the way in the shape of the US Bureau of Land Management. Over 130 applications are currently pending to build solar energy plants on desert land in areas such as Arizona, Nevada and Southern California. However, the federal authorities who manage the land have become nervous about the amount of planned development and have announced a moratorium on new projects until a major environmental impact study can be completed – a task that is likely to take two years. Naturally the fledgling solar power industry is not happy. The New York Times has comment, as does the Daily Telegraph.

FERC has issued a new Open Access Transmission Tariff Order, No. 890, which revises and updates the famous Orders 888 and 889. Specific priorities for the new order, other than strengthening the existing rules, are:

• To provide greater specificity in the pro forma OATT to reduce opportunities for the exercise of undue discrimination, make undue discrimination easier to detect, and facilitate the Commission’s enforcement; and
• To increase transparency in the rules applicable to planning and use of the transmission system.

An overview of the new order can be found here, and there is commentary from Platts here.