Hill Heat

The power sector is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States—accounting for a quarter of total emissions. Experts have noted that decarbonizing this sector and electrifying other sectors is crucial for achieving economy-wide emissions reductions. A new report from Resources for the Future (RFF) and the Clean Energy Buyers Institute examines five pathways toward decarbonization of the power sector. The report finds that three of them would reduce costs and inflation: a national transmission macrogrid, further competition among electricity generators, and expansion of retail supply choice among buyers. The other two are candidates for going beyond the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act: a national clean electricity standard and utility-led decarbonization.

Join us on Tuesday, September 13, for an RFF Live webinar exploring the report’s key findings and examining the likely impacts of the five pathways. A panel of experts—including lead author Daniel Shawhan and other major contributors to the report—will discuss the emissions reductions and health benefits from each pathway, the monetary benefits and costs for the power sector and energy consumers, and the effects on company purchases of green power.

Speakers

• James Elsworth, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Caroline Golin, Google
• Michael O’Boyle, Energy Innovation
• Daniel Shawhan, Resources for the Future
• Bryn Baker, Clean Energy Buyers Association (Moderator)

RSVP

You are invited to attend a virtual public comment meeting hosted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) as part of the National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Program and Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.

Please note that registration to provide an oral comment is strongly recommended as those who register will receive preference. Oral public comments will be limited to two-minutes.

We look forward to hearing your comments on the Proposed Program and Draft Programmatic EIS.

Additional meeting and public comment information can be found here.

To sign up for the mailing list and receive future news and updates, go to the BOEM website.

Register for the webinar and for public comment.

At 10:00 am PDT on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a hybrid field hearing titled “Building Climate-Resilient Coastal Communities: Perspectives from Oregon’s State, Local, and Tribal Partners.” The hearing will be held in Patriot Hall, Clatsop Community College, 1650 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103.

For the general public wishing to attend the hearing, please enter through the Patriot Hall front entrance and proceed to the gymnasium, which will open at 9 am for attendees.

Witnesses:

• Dr. Elaine Placido, Executive Director, Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership. Placido is a veteran of the Coast Guard and has twenty-plus years of local government and non-profit experience prior to working with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership.
• Dr. Francis Chan, Director, Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resource Studies; Associate Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University. Chan leads the Institute’s research in conservation, protection, and restoration of marine resources; marine ecosystems; ocean acoustics; and ocean, coastal, and seafloor processes.
• Tyler Bell, Director, Westervelt Ecological Services’ Rocky Mountain Region. Bell primarily oversees the organization’s restoration site planning and development, agency relations and coordination, business development, and management of regional staff.
• Aja DeCoteau, Executive Director, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. DeCoteau leads the organization’s strategic direction and team of more than 130 employees in four locations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho to put fish back in the rivers, protect treaty fishing rights, share salmon culture, and provide direct services to tribal fishers along the Columbia River.

The National Park Service is proposing to reopen the upper portion of Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park to vehicular traffic after closing it for more than two years. The road would reopen on weekdays most of the year, but NPS wants to continue to close that stretch of road to cars from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Last year, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) requested banning cars on upper Beach Drive, as did the D.C. City Council.

Of the 2400 comments received during the initial comment period, over 76% of commenters supported full-year closure of the road to vehicular traffic; only 14% of commenters supported returning the road to vehicular use.

The NPS will host a live, virtual public meeting on July 18, 2022 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Join the Microsoft Teams meeting by clicking this link.

To connect via phone only dial, +1 202-640-1187, 146280403#. A recording of the meeting will also be available to view here after the meeting.  

This hearing has been postponed and will be rescheduled for a date to be announced.

This is a virtual hearing.

Witnesses

• Richard Murray, Ph.D., Deputy Director and Vice President for Science and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• Laure Katz, Blue Nature Vice President, Conservation International
• Fertram Sigurjonsson, Founder and CEO, Kerecis

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Dr. Eric K. Lin, Director, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Dr. Ariel Stein, Acting Director, Global Monitoring Laboratory and Director, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Dr. Karen M. St. Germain, Earth Science Division Director, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Dr. Bryan Hubbell, National Program Director for Air, Climate, and Energy, Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Scott Marlow, Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs, Farm Service Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Dana Coale, Deputy Administrator, Agriculture Marketing Service Dairy Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Lolly Lesher, Owner/Operator, Way-Har Farms, Bernville, PA, on behalf of National Milk Producers Federation
• Mike Durkin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Leprino Foods Company, Denver, CO, on behalf of International Dairy Foods Association
• Travis Forgues, Vice President of Membership, Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative, LaFarge, WI
• Dr. Marin Bozic, Assistant Professor of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota

The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) invites you to attend one of the virtual public comment meetings it will conduct by telephone on the Line 200 and Line 300 Project draft environmental impact statement.

Driftwood proposes to construct and operate dual 42-inch-diameter natural gas pipelines originating near the town of Ragley in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana southward to a proposed receiver facility near the town of Carlyss in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana.

The FERC staff concludes that construction and operation of the Project would result in some adverse environmental impacts. Most of these impacts would be temporary and occur during construction (e.g., impacts on land use, traffic, and noise). With the exception of climate change impacts, that are not characterized in this EIS as significant or insignificant, we conclude that Project effects would not be significant based on implementation of Driftwood’s impact avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures, as well as their adherence to our recommendations. Other than the non-significant impacts on environmental justice communities associated with the construction and operation of Meter Station 7 and Meter Station 9, we conclude that the Project would not result in disproportionately high or adverse impacts on environmental justice communities.

Docket Nos. CP21-465-000, CP21-465-001, CP21-465-002

Date, Time, and Call-in Information

Thursday, June 16, 2022 5:30 pm (CST)

• Call in number: 800-779-8625
• Participant passcode: 3472916

Note that the comment meetings will start at 5:30 pm (CST) and will terminate once all participants wishing to comment have had the opportunity to do so, or at 7:30 pm (CST), whichever comes first. The primary goal of these comment meetings is to have you identify the specific environmental issues and concerns that should be considered in the final environmental impact statement. Individual oral comments will be taken on a one-on-one basis with a court reporter present on the line. This format is designed to receive the maximum amount of oral comments, in a convenient way during the timeframe allotted, and is in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As a reminder, the Commission encourages electronic filing of comments and has staff available to assist you at (866) 208-3676 or [email protected]. Please carefully follow these instructions so that your comments are properly recorded.

You can file your comments electronically using the eComment feature on the Commission’s website (www.ferc.gov) under the link to FERC Online. This is an easy method for submitting brief, text-only comments on a project; You can file your comments electronically by using the eFiling feature on the Commission’s website (www.ferc.gov) under the link to FERC Online. With eFiling, you can provide comments in a variety of formats by attaching them as a file with your submission. New eFiling users must first create an account by clicking on “eRegister.” If you are filing a comment on a particular project, please select “Comment on a Filing” as the filing type; and You can file a paper copy of your comments by mailing them to the Commission. Be sure to reference the project docket number (CP21-465-000) on your letter. Submissions sent via the U.S. Postal Service must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. Submissions sent via any other carrier must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20852

FERC is hosting a scoping meeting for the Cat Creek Energy pumped storage hydropower project in Idaho (docket P-14655-002) from 10am-12:00pm Mountain Day Light Time (MDT) (or 12pm to 2pm Eastern Standard Time).

• Call in number: 800-779-8625
• Participant Code: 3472916

The virtual meeting is preceded by a virtual site review.

At the scoping meeting, Commission staff will: (1) initiate scoping of the issues; (2) review and discuss existing conditions; (3) review and discuss existing information and identify preliminary information and study needs; (4) review and discuss the process plan and schedule for pre-filing activity that incorporates the time frames provided for in Part 5 of the Commission’s regulations and, to the extent possible, maximizes coordination of federal, state, and tribal permitting and certification processes; and (5) discuss the potential of any federal or state agency or Native American tribe to act as a cooperating agency for development of an environmental document. Meeting participants should come prepared to discuss their issues and/or concerns. Please review CCE’s PAD in preparation for the scoping meetings. Directions on how to obtain a copy of the PAD and SD1 are included in this document.

Commission meeting held in Room 2C, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426. Open to the public.

Link to meeting webcast when live

Meeting agenda
ADMINISTRATIVE
A-1	AD22-1-000	Agency Administrative Matters
A-2	AD22-2-000	Customer Matters, Reliability, Security and Market Operations
ELECTRIC
E-1	RM22-14-000	Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements
E-2	RM22-10-000	Transmission System Planning Performance Requirements for Extreme Weather
E-3	RM22-16-000	One-Time Informational Reports on Extreme Weather Vulnerability Assessments
	AD21-13-000	Climate Change, Extreme Weather, and Electric System Reliability
E-4	EL15-70-003	Public Citizen, Inc. v. Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
	EL15-71-003	The People of the State of Illinois, By Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan v. Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc.
	EL15-72-003	Southwestern Electric Cooperative, Inc. v. Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc., Dynegy, Inc., and Sellers of Capacity into Zone 4 of the 2015-2016 MISO Planning Resource Auction
E-5	ER21-2455-000	California Independent System Operator Corporation
	ER21-2455-001
E-6	ER21-2460-000	New York Independent System Operator, Inc.
	ER21-2460-001
E-7	ER22-707-001	ISO New England Inc.and New England Power Company d/b/a National Grid
E-8	ER21-56-000	Guzman Energy,LLC
E-9	ER21-61-000	El Paso Electric Company
E-10	ER21-58-000	TransAlta Energy Marketing (U.S.) Inc.
E-11	ER17-910-003	Pacific Gas and Electric Company
	ER17-1509-003
	ER17-2181-003
	ER18-1102-002
E-12	RD22-3-000	North American Electric Reliability Corporation
E-13	ER22-1247-000	NSTAR Electric Company and ParkCity Wind LLC
GAS
G-1	RP21-1001-008	Texas Eastern Transmission, LPHYDRO
H-1	P-3063-023	Blackstone Hydro Associates
H-2	P-619-164	Pacific Gas and Electric Company and City of Santa Clara
H-3	P-2004-302	City of Holyoke Gas and Electric Department
H-4	P-2107-047	Pacific Gas and Electric Company
H-5	P-3777-011	The Town of Rollinsford, New Hampshire
CERTIFICATES
C-1	CP20-312-000	Equitrans, L.P.
	RP21-882-000
C-2	CP22-167-000	Roaring Fork Midstream, LLC