Congress passed the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) in 1978. It quickly proved controversial in practice, and remains so today. PURPA introduced competition to the electric industry by creating a market for...more
On November 17, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the “Commission”) issued an order officially terminating consideration of a three-year-old proposal to require quarterly reporting of every Natural Gas...more
On November 10, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission) scheduled a technical conference regarding its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on the collection of “Connected Entity” data from...more
On November 6, 2015, the chairmen of several congressional energy committees and subcommittees sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or “Commission”) requesting that FERC convene a technical...more
On October 16, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 816, a Final Rule streamlining its requirements for authorization to make wholesale sales of electric energy, capacity and ancillary...more
On October 15, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the “Commission”) issued an order clarifying the extent to which natural gas asset management agreements (AMAs) provide an exemption from the Commission’s...more
Following a raucous debate fueled by intense lobbying by environmental organizations and the oil industry, the California Legislature has approved an ambitious plan by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to boost targets for renewable...more
9/23/2015
/ CAISO ,
Energy & Climate Debates ,
Energy Efficiency ,
Energy Policy ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
ISOs ,
New Legislation ,
Oil & Gas ,
Power Purchase Agreements ,
Public Policy ,
Renewable Energy ,
Renewable Fuel Standard ,
Solar Energy ,
Transmission Lines ,
Utilities Sector
On July 28, 2015, following a marked increase in protests at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) open meetings and outside FERC headquarters—which in one case to date resulted in the rescheduling of an open meeting to...more
On August 19, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit denied two wind generators’ (“Generators”) petitions for review of various Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders assigning the corrected...more
A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Administrative Law Judge last week issued an Initial Decision finding that BP America (BP) and certain related BP entities violated FERC’s Anti-Manipulation Rule. Following a...more
8/18/2015
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Appeals ,
BP ,
CFTC ,
Commodity Futures Contracts ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Exclusive Jurisdiction ,
Federal Power Act ,
FERC ,
Market Manipulation ,
Natural Gas Act ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pipelines ,
Transacting Intrastate Business
On July 22, 2015, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power unanimously passed a diverse energy bill designed to expedite Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) natural gas pipeline reviews,...more
On July 30, 2015, two weeks after the Office of Enforcement (OE) of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a staff notice of alleged violations (“Notice”) to Columbia Gas Transmission LLC (“Columbia Gas”) for...more
On July 16, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) eliminated the requirement for certain public utilities, including regional transmission organizations (RTOs), independent system operators (ISOs) and exempt...more
On July 7, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a notice seeking comments on a petition for rulemaking filed by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The petition asks FERC to implement reforms...more
On May 15, 2015, the five sitting Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners sent a joint letter to Janet G. McCabe, acting assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regarding the...more
On May 6, 2015, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) released a discussion draft of the Free Market Energy Act of 2015 (the “Act”), a bill that would radically change the landscape for distributed energy resources (DERs) – small-scale...more
On April 16, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 809, its Final Rule regarding the coordination of scheduling between interstate natural gas pipelines and electric public utilities. FERC...more
On April 21, 2015, the Supreme Court issued a divided opinion declining to find federal pre-emption by the Natural Gas Act (NGA) of certain state antitrust claims. In Oneok, Inc. v. Learjet, Inc., a group of manufacturers,...more
Several states and Murray Energy Corp. (“Murray Energy”), supported by numerous intervenors and amici, presented oral arguments today before the D.C. Circuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed...more
On March 23, 2015, Congressman Ed Whitfield (R-KY), Chairman of the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, released a discussion draft of the Ratepayer Protection Act of 2015 (the Act)....more
On March 3, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued Opinion No. 531-B, an order denying rehearing of Opinion No. 531. Opinion No. 531 involved a challenge to the New England Transmission Owners’...more
At the end of January, the D.C. Circuit denied rehearing en banc in Smith Lake Improvement and Stakeholder Association v. FERC. Smith Lake clarified when a party denied rehearing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...more
On February 6, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an Order on Rehearing of its Order No. 768, in which FERC expanded its Electric Quarterly Report (EQR) filing requirements by, among other things,...more
On February 2, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an Order to Show Cause and Notice of Proposed Penalty (Show Cause Order) directing Calgary-based Maxim Power Corporation and certain of its...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week issued a proposed policy statement to clarify FERC’s allowance of “hold harmless” commitments in applications filed under Section 203 of the Federal Power Act (FPA)....more