Law Office of Sophy Sedarat, LLC

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy formally requested that New Jersey be reentered into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) as a member-state. Although Murphy signed an executive order to rejoin the group, the rules of RGGI require non-member states to obtain approval from current member states before being allowed to join – approval the governor must now wait for. New Jersey, which was actually one of the initial founding member-states of the group, was removed from RGGI by former Governor Chris Christie. RGGI is a cap-and-trade group which raises money through CO2 allowance auctions that is then redistributed to member states to finance clean energy initiatives. https://www.nbcphila

Despite challenges from intervening environmental groups, the New Jersey Appellate Court upheld a lower court’s approval of 1991 administrative consent orders (ACOs) between NJDEP and Exxon Mobil. The ACOs were related to penalties and remediation of polluted sites at Exxon’s Bayway Refinery in Linden, NJ and Exxon’s Bayonne, NJ facility. At the crux of the interveners’ challenge was the fact that the lower court upheld NJDEP’s acceptance of a $225 million settlement, despite the State indicating that there would be an estimated $8.9 billion in cleanup costs. The Appellate Court upheld the settlement agreements, finding that “since [the lower court Judge] conducted the trial, heard the testi

The New York State Public Service Commission received a proposal from the Orange and Rockland Utilities in which Tesla would “create, install, and operate 4MW/8MWh batteries that would be integrated into Orange and Rockland's power grid.” Orange and Rockland is a subsidiary company of Con Edison, which is “the largest electric utility company in New York.” The proposal requests approval for a three-year “demonstration period” in which “the project would be used to test the feasibility of using batteries on a wider scale in New York power grids.” http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-coned-partnership-proposed-for-new-york-2018-2

President Trump approved four years of solar tariffs to be imposed on solar equipment made outside of the US; the tariffs will be at a rate of 30% in the first year and 15% thereafter, with an exemption for the first 2.5 gigawatts each year. In October 2017, the U.S. International Trade Commission determined that imported solar equipment was harming American manufacturers and consequently recommended tariffs at a rate of 35%. Although the tariffs that President Trump ultimately imposed were at a lower rate, the “idea behind the tariffs is to raise the costs of cheap imports, particularly from Asia, and level the playing field for those who manufacture the parts domestically.” Although the Pr

A shipment of gas from a Russian company is anchored in Massachusetts Bay and set to unload fuel in New England despite being on the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list; this will be the “first shipment of gas [from Russia] to ever reach the United States.” However, Russian gas was only part of the ship’s cargo, and because “gas from other European sources was also included” enforcement of sanctions would be difficult. Such enforcement is difficult because gas cargos “can change hands frequently and are often mixed with fuel from multiple locations” before reaching their final destination. The Treasury Department declined to comment. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/26/russia-gas

A District Court ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to publish the 2016 Obama-era efficiency standards in light of the Trump Administration’s refusal to implement the standards. The ruling came in response to a suit by a “coalition of states” led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, alleging the Trump administration was violating federal law by refusing to use the standards, which “are estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 98.8 million tons over three decades.” The efficiency standards are related to “portable air conditioners, air compressors and commercial packaged boilers, as well as ‘uninterruptible power supplies,’ a

Highlighting its desire to support renewable energy in the U.S. power market, this month FERC approved a Rule which would “properly recognize the physical and operational characteristics of electric storage resources . . . [and] ‘enhance competition and promote greater efficiency in the nation’s electric wholesale markets . . . .’” The Rule is a win for renewable energy, because although wind and solar power can be intermittent, electric storage resources, such as batteries, help mitigate this problem. In November 2016, FERC found that the then “existing market rules that governed traditional electric generation resources created barriers to entry for electric storage technologies.” https://