DOE Reliability NOI

Craig Gannet reports:

I talked to Rich Glick this morning about the rumored
Administration rulemaking on reliability. Rich said that it will be a
notice of inquiry, not a proposed rulemaking. The NOI will essentially ask
three questions: (1) should DOE issue a proposed rule? (2) Does DOE have the
legal authority to do so? (3) if DOE should issue a rule and has the
authority to do so, what should be included in the rule? The NOI will not
contain any proposed language. The comment period will be 45 days, and Rich
does not expect this Adminstration to act on this issue. In effect, he
said, they are simply teeing the issue up for the next Administration.
(This assumes that the pending reliability legislation is not passed during
the upcoming lame duck session, which I think is a pretty safe assumption.)
Rich said that the NOI is on Secretary Richardson's desk, and is likely to
be signed tomorrow.