Proliance has generously offered to host our Summer Executive Committee Meeting and Policy Leadership Elections on July 29 and 30, 2008, in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Please register for the meeting at this hotlink. The meeting will take place at the law offices of Krieg Devault LLP. The Draft Agenda is available at this hotlink.

NEM has a courtesy room block until July 5, 2008, at the Embassy Suites at a discounted rate of $139/night. You must make your reservations by dialing them directly at (317) 236-1923 at your earliest convenience as they will release the rooms after the July 5 date, and the costs may increase. The location of the hotel is 110 West Washington Street in downtown Indy, 3 blocks from the meeting place.

There is no charge to attend this meeting. Please help us thank John Talley, President, and Kyle Hupfer, General Counsel, of Proliance for their generosity in hosting this meeting.

The Meeting will start between 9 and 10AM on Tuesday morning, July 29th, and adjourn before noon on Wednesday, July 30, 2008. An agenda and draft leadership nominations will be circulated, and each member is requested to forward nominations for policy leadership positions as well as issues that NEM must address and prioritize for the coming year.

The Summer Executive Committee Meeting is where the Executive Committee members agree on mid course corrections on the priorities for NEM advocacy for the remainder of 2008 and members who wish to sponsor upcoming events give us an indication so we may start planning the meetings and events for the remainder of 2008 and 2009.

If you have questions or would like to help plan or co-sponsor an event for the members, please contact headquarters. The upcoming meeting should be very substantive, and your participation is encouraged and would be appreciated.

As a result of last year's Supreme Court decision finding that EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from motor vehicles as "air pollutants" under the Clean Air Act, EPA has issued an ANOPR to consider the ramifications of taking such action. At issue is whether GHGs can be effectively controlled within the provisions of the Clean Air Act, whether it would lead to regulation of GHG emissions under the Act for major stationary sources of air pollutants, impacts of future climate legislation and relevant technologies for reducing GHG emissions. EPA Administrator Johnson publicly argued that, "the Clean Air Act is ill-suited for the task of regulating global greenhouse gases. Based on the analyses to date, pursuing this course of action would take decades and inevitably result in a very complicated and likely, convoluted set of regulations. If our nation is truly serious about regulating greenhouse gases, the Clean Air Act is the wrong tool for the job." EPA will accept comments up to 120 days after publication of the ANOPR in the Federal Register. The full text of the ANOPR is available on the NEM Website.

Senator Levin has introduced S.3255, the Over-the-Counter Speculation Act. The bill would provide CFTC with authority to require large traders in the OTC market to reduce their positions in order to prevent price manipulation or excessive speculation. CFTC would be required to issue regulations requiring the reporting of large OTC transactions as well as for the retention of trading records by persons required to report large OTC transactions. The full text of S.3255 is available on the NEM Website.

FERC ordered a hearing in the Amaranth case, involving natural gas futures trading activities and whether those activities violated the Commission's anti-manipulation regulations. The Commission found that genuine issues of fact material to the decision in the case require a hearing, notwithstanding extensive pleadings already filed. The Commission made a number of legal determinations as well. FERC found it has jurisdiction under Section 4A of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) to impose penalties for manipulative trading of NYMEX natural gas futures contracts that has a clear and direct effect on physical jurisdictional natural gas sales prices. FERC found it can reasonably exercise jurisdiction over a former Amaranth trader (a Canadian) and Amaranth (a Bermudan corporation) for purposes of setting the matter for hearing. FERC determined that "any entity" as used in the anti-manipulation rules applies to natural persons. Specific false statements are not required in order to trigger potential liability under NGA Section 4A, and acting with reckless disregard to jurisdictional transactions is sufficient to trigger potential liability under the anti-manipulation regulations. Finally, FERC reiterated that its assessment of NGA Section 22 civil penalties should be reviewed by a court of appeals rather than a federal district court. The full text of the Amaranth Order is available on the NEM Website.