by Timothy J. Sabo Water is essential to Arizona. Hundreds of thousands of Arizonans are served by privately-owned water companies regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). There are hundreds of these companies. They range widely in size, financial condition, and expertise. Perhaps the hardest job is faced by the smallest utilities, who must provide […]
by J. Matthew Derstine Last week Peabody Energy announced that it filed bankruptcy. Peabody is the nation’s largest coal company. The filing by Peabody comes on the heels of the January 2016 bankruptcy filing by Arch Coal, the nation’s second largest coal producer. Over 26 coal companies have gone bankrupt in the past several years […]
by Jason Gellman Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Survey showed that $271 billion is needed for the Nation’s Wastewater Infrastructure, including for investor-owned utilities regulated by state public utility commissions.[1] The U.S. EPA is currently conducting a survey for water infrastructure[2] – but water service professionals have been sounding the alarm for years about an […]
by Michael Patten and Jason Gellman The Arizona Corporation Commission recently reviewed a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) issued by the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee for the SunZia transmission line project (SunZia). ACC Docket No. L-00000YY-15031800171. SunZia includes the construction of two new 500 kilovolt interstate transmission lines (and related facilities) […]
by Raymond S. Heyman One of the fastest emerging technologies in the energy industry is battery storage. Seen as a solution to frequency regulation challenges and renewable energy shortfalls, battery storage is sometimes called the next “game changer.” There are two types of battery energy storage options. Large “front-of-the-meter” storage applications are grid scale and […]
by Erik G. Nielsen On November 30, 2015, world leaders converged in Paris for COP 21—the United Nations conference on climate change. This is the 21st year that countries from around the world have come together with the goal of reducing the impacts of global climate change. While negotiations are still ongoing, it is expected […]
by Timothy J. Sabo A recent Arizona Court of Appeals case found that a utility’s tariff can impose binding limits on liability, even on third parties. The case is US Airways, Inc. v. Qwest Corporation, 722 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 12 (Arizona Court of Appeals, October 1, 2015). The case arose from an accident that severed […]
By Matt Derstine Since last June when the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced its proposed plan for achieving carbon emission reductions from power plants, much of the discussion has focused on the impact of the plan on coal plants and the possibility of widespread coal plant retirements. Now, with the release of the EPA’s final […]
By Chris Colyer and Patrick Paul On August 3, 2015, President Barack Obama and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued their final Clean Power Plan rule, which imposes requirements on states and tribes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. EPA issued the new rulemaking pursuant to Section 111(d) of the […]
The debate over net metering is a hot topic before many state legislatures and public utility commissions. The Western U.S. is no exception. Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and California are among the states grappling with the idea of how to properly incent distributed generation (DG) and whether net metering needs to be part of that […]
