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Potential for legal challenges to New York’s new Clean Energy Standard

justiceFlag-USAWith Clean Energy Standard, New York looks to save nukes, skirt legal challenges Regulators say three nuclear plants are essential to meeting state climate goals, but is their plan to save them legal? Utility Dive, By  | August 4, 2016  New York regulators approved an aggressive Clean Energy Standard this week that calls for 50% renewable energy and includes income supports to keep three upstate nuclear plants online. ……the order has been carefully crafted to pass federal or legal scrutiny, though a challenge is all but inevitable……

New York’s nuclear support is unique, in that it uses the federal government’s social cost of carbon as an integral part of the formula determining the level of financial support to plants. Regulators hope that formulation will insulate them from legal challenges, but the National Energy Marketers Association has argued that the nuclear supports are the same type of regulatory action invalidated by the Supreme Court in Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing. The Natural Gas Supply Association has said the ZEC proposal steps into FERC’s territory…….
With parties on both sides of the issue staking out positions, a challenge in front of either federal regulators or a judge is likely. And because time is of the essence for these challenged plants, it remains unclear what impact a drawn out fight could have………
Potential legal challengesWith opposition to the CES bubbling among fossil fuel providers, its likely the decision will face some challenge, either regulatory or legal.

In the days after its announcement, much of the legal speculation has centered on Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing.

In a unanimous decision in April, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a controversial Maryland program to incentivize new in-state generation, finding that it intruded on federal authorities’ jurisdiction over wholesale energy markets.

That case is also being talked about in the context of Ohio’s struggles with uneconomic generation. A previous subsidy passed by that state was blocked by FERC, forcing the utilities to revise and reduce their subsidy proposals……http://www.utilitydive.com/news/with-clean-energy-standard-new-york-looks-to-save-nukes-skirt-legal-chall/423673/

August 5, 2016 - Posted by | Legal, USA

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