Energy & Sustainability

The filed rate doctrine precludes antitrust challenges to rates set or approved by federal agencies. The doctrine is broadly applied and covers, for example, wholesale electricity rates that are filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission), even in circumstances where the claimant alleges that the rates were initially set in a fraudulent or improper manner.

President Obama issued an executive order prohibiting a Chinese-owned company from acquiring and owning four wind farms in the U.S. on September 28, 2012, which marks the first time in over two decades that a U.S. president has blocked a foreign transaction.

While political gridlock at the federal level threatens crucial incentives for renewable power and some states seem to be slowing or at least re-evaluating their policies, a few states are still pressing forward aggressively.

The European Chamber of Commerce in China released a report on August 22 titled “Dulling the Cutting Edge: How Patent-Related Policies and Practices Hamper Innovation in China,” finding that, despite the rise of China to the number one country in numbers of domestic patent application filings, the number of quality, higher-end patent applications has declined.