On May 26, 2023, the Commission accepted Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) to establish the “framework under which an electric storage resource may be...more
On March 3, 2023, the House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Energy, Climate Change, and Grid Security Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-SC) sent a letter to Acting FERC Chairman Willie...more
On May 4, 2023, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hosted all four FERC Commissioners for an oversight hearing to focus on reliability in the face of (1) cyber-attacks, (2) coal and natural gas plant...more
On April 19, 2023, FERC announced it would hold a forum to discuss the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) capacity market. The Commissioner-led forum is scheduled for Thursday, June 15, 2023. There will be three panels to...more
On March 16, 2023, FERC granted a petition declaring that, should it issue orders pursuant to Sections 210 and 211 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”), which would be required for a prospective project to interconnect Puerto...more
On March 1, 2023, FERC partially approved ISO New England’s (“ISO-NE”) proposed tariff revisions in compliance with Order No. 2222, which removed barriers to the participation of distributed energy resource (“DER”)...more
On February 10, 2023, FERC approved the Western Resource Adequacy Program (“WRAP”) proposed by the Western Power Pool (“WPP”). The voluntary program commits participants to demonstrate prior to a given Winter or Summer season...more
On December 30, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (“9th Circuit”) affirmed a lower court’s denial of the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe’s (“Tribe”) motion to remand to state court and its dismissal of the...more
On December 20, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) in Waterkeepers Chesapeake, et al. v. FERC vacated a FERC order approving the relicensing of the Conowingo Dam because FERC did not have...more
On January 3, 2023, President Joe Biden named Willie Phillips acting chairman of FERC. Chairman Phillips first joined the Commission in December 2021 after being nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate. His...more
On January 19, 2023, the Commission issued a final rule that directs the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to develop and submit reliability standards for monitoring high and medium impact bulk electric...more
On December 15, 2022, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) seeking to revise its regulations governing applications for permits to site electric transmission facilities under § 216 of the Federal Power Act...more
On November 18, 2022, FERC accepted a September 19, 2022 proposal from the California Independent System Operator (“CAISO”) to correct “excessively high” payments being made to electric storage resources that are forced to...more
On November 17, 2022, FERC issued three orders intended to address the reliability impacts of the rapid integration of inverter-based resources (“IBRs”), including solar, wind, fuel cell, and battery storage resources, on the...more
On August 1, the Supreme Court of California upheld a decision by the Court of Appeal, which found that the Federal Power Act (FPA) preempts application of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when the state is...more
On September 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued an opinion in Save the Colorado, et al. v. Spellmon. The case arose from various conservation group challenges to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...more
On August 30, FERC plans to hold a virtual workshop to discuss how members of the public (including customers and consumer advocates) can better participate in hydroelectric proceedings. The workshop is part of Commission’s...more
On July 28, 2022, FERC proposed a new “duty of candor” rule that would broadly apply to “all entities communicating with the Commission or other specified organizations related to a matter subject to the jurisdiction of the...more
On June 28, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) issued a decision in Sierra Club v. FERC upholding FERC’s approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC’s (“MVP”)...more
On June 16, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) focused on updating procedures for interconnecting large generating facilities (20MW and above) and small generating facilities (under 20MW). The NOPR proposes...more
On May 27, 2022, a divided FERC ultimately agreed to allow ISO New England Inc. (“ISO-NE”) to sunset its current minimum offer price rule (“MOPR”) as part of its capacity market. During the next two capacity auctions, ISO-NE...more
On May 19, 2022, FERC staff released its 2022 Summer Energy Market and Reliability Assessment (“Summer Assessment”). The Summer Assessment forecasts “higher than average” temperatures for the summer, which are expected to...more
On April 22, 2022, the Commission on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”), reversed its approval of the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s...more
On April 21, 2022, FERC issued an order assessing a civil penalty of $600,000 to Ampersand Cranberry Lake Hydro, LLC (“Ampersand”), licensee for the 595 kilowatt (kW) Cranberry Lake Hydroelectric Project in St. Lawrence...more
On March 25, 2022, FERC found that Nopetro LNG, LLC’s (“Nopetro”) proposed natural gas liquefaction and truck loading facility and proposed transloading operations in Port St. Joe, Florida, are not subject to FERC’s...more