Department of Energy January 19, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Western Area Power Administration (Western) issued a notice of intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on August 2, 2006, for the Eastern Plains Transmission Project (EPTP or Transmission Project). This notice announces additional public meetings to provide the public opportunity to review and comment on additional transmission line routes and revised routes; the scope of the EIS; and review comments previously received during the scoping meetings held in August and September 2006. Western is proposing to participate with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Incorporated (Tri-State) in the construction of the EPTP. Western's participation would be in exchange for 275 megawatts (MW) of capacity rights on the proposed transmission lines. The EIS will address the construction, operation, and maintenance of approximately 1,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and ancillary facilities, which include substations, fiber optic installation, access roads, and construction staging areas. The EIS will discuss alternatives such as Western's system alternatives and the no action alternative (no Federal action). The EIS will analyze and present environmental impacts compared to the existing baseline condition in which no Transmission Project facilities exist. The EIS also will include analyses of the environmental impacts of Tri-State's proposed generation projects, and other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable projects in the EPTP area. The EIS will be prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and DOE NEPA Implementing Procedures.

This interim rule responds to the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacating and remanding the standards of conduct rule, Order No. 2004, as it relates to interstate natural gas pipelines, in National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation v. FERC, 468 F.3d 831 (D.C. Cir. 2006). The court objected to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (Commission's) expansion of the prior standards of conduct to include energy affiliates, and vacated the entire rule as it relates to natural gas pipelines. The interim rule repromulgates the standards of conduct that were not challenged before the court on an interim basis while the Commission considers how to respond to the court's decision on a permanent basis.