Alunda Edmonds – Global Power Law & Policy

K&L Gates Distinguished Speaker Program – featuring A. Stanley Meiburg, Acting Deputy Administrator, EPA

Sep 16 2016

K&L Gates is pleased to invite you to our September 20th Distinguished Speaker Program breakfast featuring A. Stanley Meiburg, Acting Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Stan Meiburg serves as the Acting Deputy Administrator of EPA, continuing a career spanning over 39 years at EPA in locations around the country. He has broad experience in the management of the agency across the spectrum of EPA’s activities, and has received numerous awards, including recognition as a Distinguished Federal Executive in 2012 and as a Meritorious Federal Executive in 1997. He received EPA’s Gold Medal in 1990 for his work on the Clean Air Act Amendments, and Silver Medal in 1983 for work on state-federal relations.

Meiburg spent 18 years as Deputy Regional Administrator of EPA’s Region 4 office in Atlanta, Georgia, following service as Deputy Regional Administrator in EPA’s Region 6 office in Dallas, Texas. He is the second person in EPA history to serve as Deputy Regional Administrator in more than one region.

From 1990 to 1995, Meiburg was Director of Region 6’s Air, Pesticides and Toxics Division. From 1985 to 1990, he was Director of the Planning and Management Staff of EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards in Durham, North Carolina, leading work on the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments as well as planning and budgeting for the air program.

Meiburg joined EPA in 1977, serving in a variety of positions in Washington, D.C., Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Dallas, Texas, before coming to Atlanta. Meiburg holds a B.A. degree from Wake Forest University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from The Johns Hopkins University.

RSVP:
To attend, please email Kristen Hughes or call +1.202.661.3795 by 5:00 p.m. EDT, Monday, September 19.

This event is not a fundraiser. To maintain the informality of this event, it is strictly off the record.

Building Bridges IV Bridging the Public-Private Divide: Financing Infrastructure Through Pooled Investment Platforms

Sep 16 2016

K&L Gates, SovereigNET, The Fletcher School’s Network for Sovereign Wealth and Global Capital, and the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds are pleased to announce our fourth symposium on global infrastructure.

The central theme of the symposium will be Bridging the Public-Private Divide through Pooled Investment Platforms. The discussion will focus on the design of innovative financing platforms to narrow the global infrastructure investment gap.

Gathering representatives from the World Bank and the institutional investor community together with policy makers, development banks, service providers, academics, and public sector partners, the symposium will explore the role of investment fund structures – sovereign, multilateral and private – in mobilizing capital in scale to finance critical infrastructure needs in both developed and emerging economies.

The symposium will be organized into four discussion panels and several interactive lunch breakouts. All sessions will feature speakers who are actively involved in sponsoring, funding, managing, and governing global infrastructure and strategic investment funds.

Keynote Speaker: Adrian Orr, Chief Executive Officer, New Zealand Superannuation Fund; Chair of International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds

To RSVP for this program, please click here.

Event: Infocast’s Corporate Renewables 2016, K&L Gates Platinum Sponsor

Sep 01 2016

We invite you to join us for Infocast’s Corporate Renewables 2016 program on September26-28, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Portland partners Teresa A. Hill and William H. Holmes will be co-sponsors, along with faculty from Renewable Choice Energy, of a one-day, interactive Corporate Renewables 101 workshop on Monday, September 26. Topics discussed will include developing a procurement strategy, offsite renewable energy options, and executing on your renewable energy strategy. The workshop will help corporations, universities, non-profits and other non-utility purchasers of renewable energy build a strong foundation in renewable energy procurement.

Women in Power: Networking, Exploring and Fueling the Energy Economy

Aug 30 2016

We invite you to join the women of K&L Gates LLP and other women in the energy industry on Thursday, September 29th for a day of engaging discussion on hot topic issues. The tentative agenda can be found below.

We also invite the women attending this program to join us in the evening for K&L Gates LLP’s annual networking reception celebrating women in business and law. This year’s event will feature several leading female chefs and mixologists in the D.C. area who will showcase their culinary work ranging from savory dishes to delectable pastries and cocktails. The chefs will be available for discussions regarding their work as well as their businesses’ challenges and successes. The event also features a live painting exhibition by D.C.-based artist Maggie O’Neill, co-founder of SwatchRoom. The painting will be raffled off at the event, with all proceeds going to a local charity.

Another Step Toward North Carolina Offshore Wind: Proposed Offshore Wind Farm Lease Announced

Aug 18 2016

By Stanford D. Baird, David Wochner, Amy H. Fullbright and James L. Joyce

The U.S. Department of the Interior has just announced the next step in the years-long process toward the development of wind energy facilities off the coast of North Carolina. In a notice published in the Federal Register on August 16, 2016, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) proposed the sale of commercial lease rights to develop wind energy facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of northeastern North Carolina. The notice can be found at: https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-19552. The area proposed for lease encompasses approximately 122,400 acres, begins about 24 nautical miles off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and contains 21.5 Outer Continental Shelf blocks. This area is known as the Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area (“WEA”) and is situated in rough proximity to the Virginia WEA that was leased by BOEM pursuant to an auction process in 2013. A map of the proposed Kitty Hawk lease area can be found at: http://www.boem.gov/Map-Standard-Background/. Public comments to BOEM’s notice, as well as expressions of interest in the proposed lease for the Kitty Hawk WEA, may be submitted during the 60-day comment period that ends on October 17, 2016.

To read the full alert, click here.

Regulation on Wholesale Energy Markets Integrity and Transparency – Are you REMIT Compliant?

Aug 10 2016

By Christine Braamskamp, David A. Savell, Philip J. Morgan, Steven C. Sparling and Jonathan L. Hoff

The regulatory and enforcement landscape of the European natural gas and electricity markets is changing considerably following the last stage in the implementation of the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Markets Integrity and Transparency (EU) No 1227/2011 (REMIT). REMIT is a European Union Regulation designed to deter market abuse in natural gas and electricity markets. It came into force on 28 December 2011, but full implementation in Member States has been phased in over the years since then. Crucial regulator enforcement powers and sanctions were introduced in the UK in 2013 and 2015, and rules relating to data reporting have become fully operational in 2016.

CFTC Proposes to Permit Private Rights of Action Against RTOs and ISOs and Persons Transacting Thereon

Aug 08 2016

By Lawrence Patent

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has proposed to amend its previous Order exempting specified electric energy transactions from certain provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations and to permit a private right of action against regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) and persons transacting thereon for alleged fraud and manipulation. 81 Fed. Reg. 30245 (May 16, 2016). The CFTC stated that it did not intend in the original RTO/ISO Order, issued in 2013 (78 Fed. Reg. 19880 (April 2, 2013)), to grant exemption from the private right of action provided in CEA Section 22, but the Fifth Circuit held that this was the effect of the RTO/ISO Order in Aspire Commodities, L.P. v. GDF Suez Energy N.Am., Inc., No. 15-20125, 2016 WL 758689 (5th Cir. Feb. 25, 2016). Therefore, were the CFTC to adopt the amendment to the RTO/ISO Order, it would in effect be overruling Aspire. The types of transactions covered by the RTO/ISO Order include financial transmission rights, energy transactions, forward capacity transactions, and reserve or regulation transactions, and the RTO/ISO Order applies to any person or class of persons offering, entering into, rendering advice, or rendering other services with respect to these transactions.

CEQ Issues Final Greenhouse Gas Guidance Directing Federal Agencies to Consider Climate Change in their NEPA Reviews

Aug 05 2016

By Craig Wilson, Cliff Rothenstein, Sandra Safro, Ankur Tohan, David Wochner and Michael L. O’Neill

On August 2, 2016, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a final version of its guidance to federal agencies requiring the consideration of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and effects on climate change when evaluating potential impacts of a federal action under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). CEQ explains that it does not expect the Final Guidance to be applied to federal actions for which a NEPA review has been concluded or actions for which a final environmental impact statement or environmental assessment has been issued. As discussed in greater detail below, although the Final Guidance is not legally binding on federal agencies, various aspects of the document have the potential to delay permitting timelines as agencies determine whether and how to incorporate the Final Guidance into their reviews and very likely will add to the level of review that agencies undertake.

To read the full alert, click here.

Puget Sound Energy Reports to the Washington UTC on the Progress of its Efforts to Join the CAISO Energy Imbalance Market; CAISO Releases Study Chronicling Benefits of a Regional Energy Market

Jul 28 2016

By Eric Jay and Kari Vander Stoep

Puget Sound Energy (“PSE”) recently presented to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (“WUTC”) regarding the steps it is taking to join the California-based Energy Imbalance Market (“EIM”) this coming fall. WUTC Docket No. 151425 (July 20, 2016). The EIM is a new energy market overseen by the California state energy balancing authority – the California Independent System Operator (“CAISO”) – that came online in November 2014. It is intended to increase reliability and other benefits for affected costumers by coordinating the dispatch of energy generation and transmission from utilities across an expanded geographic footprint that is expected to encompass significant portions of eight western states by the end 2018. As of the end of the second quarter this year, CAISO estimates that the EIM has resulted in a $65 million gross benefit for its participants to-date.

FERC Issues Rule Requiring Wind Generators to Provide Reactive Power as a Condition of Interconnection

Jul 05 2016

By Ben Tejblum and William Keyser

On June 16, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the “Commission”) issued Order No. 827, which establishes reactive power requirements for all new non-synchronous generation (the “Rule”).[1] Specifically, the Rule revises the Commission’s pro forma Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (“LGIA”) and pro forma Small Generator Interconnection Agreement (“SGIA”) to require that newly interconnecting non-synchronous generators, including wind generators, provide dynamic reactive power pursuant to the terms of their interconnection agreements. The Rule is the result of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking addressing reactive power requirements that was issued by the Commission last November.

Author:Alunda Edmonds