By Walker Stanovsky, Craig Gannett and Richard Glick on Posted in Electric Power,FERC,Natural Resources,Renewables,Water LawLast Friday, the D.C. Circuit torpedoed a hydroelectric license issued in 2013 to Alabama Power Company because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) “declined to factor in the decades of environmental damage already wrought by exploitation of the waterway for power generation and that damage’s continuing ecological… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost on Posted in FERCOn April 19, FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) soliciting public comments on whether to revise its long-standing policy governing the processing and approval of new natural gas pipeline facilities under Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act. Although this opens the floodgates to public comment on very contentious issues, it is unlikely to result in… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost on Posted in FERCThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has a long-standing reputation for non-partisan decision-making. This was reinforced by its January 2018 rejection of the Department of Energy’s demand that electric pricing rules be changed to incentivize coal-fired and nuclear electric generation. More recent FERC actions, however, suggest that this independent regulatory agency is trending towards greater… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost on Posted in FERCAt his first Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) meeting this past December, Chairman Kevin McIntyre announced the agency will be soliciting comments on whether to revise its 1999 Certificate Policy Statement (CPS), which FERC uses to evaluate applications to build new pipelines or expand existing ones. Under the CPS, the pipeline must show that the… Continue Reading
By Davis Wright Tremaine on Posted in FERCElectric Storage On February 15, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued a final rule (Order No. 841, the “Order”) requiring each independent system operator (“ISO”) and regional transmission organization (“RTO”) to adjust their tariffs to better accommodate energy storage resources. Eligible storage facilities include any “resource capable of receiving electric energy… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost on Posted in FERCIn light of reduced corporate tax rates as the result of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Tax Act), a broad coalition of gas industry trade associations and gas producers recently filed a petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) urging the agency to lower gas pipeline and storage company rates to reflect tax rate… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost on Posted in FERCOne of the major recent changes made to the federal tax code as the result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was the reduction in corporate income tax from 35 percent to 21 percent. As soon as the corporate tax cuts took effect at the beginning of 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)… Continue Reading
By Nicholas Giannasca on Posted in FERCIn an order issued on January 12, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) rejected an application by Monongahela Power Company (“Mon Power”), a franchised public utility subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (“FE”) engaged in providing electric service in West Virginia, to acquire needed generation capacity from an affiliate. Mon Power had concluded through… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost on Posted in FERCPipeline expansion capacity is priced at the incremental cost of service of the new facilities to be constructed. This causes the incremental recourse rate to generally be higher than the otherwise applicable system recourse rate. That is no longer necessarily the case. In an order issued to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company January 18, 2018, FERC… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost on Posted in FERCFERC staff has asked gas pipelines with pending expansion applications how 2018 tax law changes will impact their proposed project’s cost of service and the project’s proposed incremental rates. FERC has imposed a quick, three business day turnaround on responses. In identical data requests sent to a number of pipelines within the last week, FERC… Continue Reading
By Davis Wright Tremaine on Posted in FERC,Trump TrackOn January 8, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) issued an order declining to conduct a rulemaking proposed by Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry to that would create rate incentives for the coal and nuclear industries (“Proposed Rule”). The Proposed Rule would have required FERC-jurisdictional Independent System Operators (“ISOs”) and Regional… Continue Reading
By James (Jim) Mitchell and Davis Wright Tremaine on Posted in FERC,Trump TrackOn September 28, 2017, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) pursuant to §403(a) of the DOE Organization Act. Regulations proposed in the NOPR would require FERC-jurisdictional Independent System Operators (“ISOs”) and Regional Transmission Organizations (“RTOs”) to develop rules for compensation of certain… Continue Reading
By James (Jim) Mitchell on Posted in FERCIt has been widely reported that President Donald J. Trump is preparing to nominate three new commissioners to fill existing vacancies at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The prospective nominees are Kevin J. McIntyre, Neil Chatterjee, and Robert F. Powelson. A little bit about each: Kevin McIntyre is co-head of the energy practice of Jones… Continue Reading
By Katie Jorrie, James (Jim) Mitchell and Patrick Ferguson on Posted in FERCThe short answer is: yes, with a few caveats. On January 19, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a policy statement that, under appropriate circumstances, electric storage resources may concurrently receive cost- and market-based revenues for providing separate services. If an electric storage resource owner/operator wants to receive cost-based rate recovery and market-based… Continue Reading
By Patrick Ferguson and Davis Wright Tremaine on Posted in FERCOn November 17, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comments on its proposal to remove barriers to the participation of electric storage resources and distributed energy resource aggregators in the organized wholesale electric markets. If successful, these new rules could unlock huge new market opportunities for distributed… Continue Reading
By Nicholas Giannasca, James (Jim) Mitchell and Davis Wright Tremaine on Posted in Federal,FERCThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) has asked for comments on procedures established for its review of mergers and acquisitions pursuant to section 203 of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”). In a Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”) issued on September 22, 2016, the Commission explained that it is seeking to “harmonize” its analysis of… Continue Reading
By Davis Wright Tremaine on Posted in Electric Power,FERCOn August 8, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its order on remand from the D.C. Circuit on FERC’s approval of ISO New England’s (ISO-NE) 2013-14 winter reliability program, results, and rates. (TransCanada Power Marketing Ltd v. FERC, No. 14-1103). In a ruling that could have a significant impact on the rates that… Continue Reading
By Barbara Jost and Davis Wright Tremaine on Posted in FERC,Oil & GasWith the rapid growth of natural gas production from shale plays and growing demand due to low gas prices, pipeline companies have been scrambling to expand and reconfigure their systems to serve the needs of a changing gas marketplace. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rules generally govern the commercial terms pipelines can offer prospective capacity… Continue Reading
By Kat Gamache and Sean B. Hoar on Posted in FERC,NERC,RulemakingsThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) July 16, 2015, proposing to approve various Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards proposed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and further proposed to direct NERC to develop a new CIP reliability standard to protect the bulk electric system (BES)… Continue Reading
By James (Jim) Mitchell on Posted in Electric Power,FERCThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is proposing to revise its standards for determining whether proposed utility mergers and other asset transfer transactions subject to its jurisdiction under Section 203 of the Federal Power Act have the potential to have an adverse effect on cost-based rates for transmission service or wholesale electric service. FERC’s policy… Continue Reading
By James (Jim) Mitchell on Posted in FERC,RulemakingsThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has ordered the New York Independent System Operator, Inc. to reopen and resettle billings for electricity it supplied during the November/December 2012 billing periods, and to refund to DWT client GDF Suez Energy Resources, NA over-charges erroneously billed to Suez as a result of Hurricane Sandy. GDF Suez Energy Resources,… Continue Reading
By James (Jim) Mitchell on Posted in Electric Power,Federal,FERCThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has announced plans to hold a series of technical conferences around the country to discuss the impact of the proposed Clean Power Plan on electric utilities. The first of these conferences will be a National Overview technical conference to be held at the FERC on February 19, 2015. Subsequent regional… Continue Reading
By Mark Perlis on Posted in Federal,FERC,NERCFERC’s enforcement action with regard to the Arizona Public Service Company (“APS”) provides some instructive guidance for all regulated utilities as to what FERC’s Office of Enforcement deems to be an effective compliance program. … Continue Reading
By James (Jim) Mitchell on Posted in FERCIn a long-awaited decision, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 19, 2014, revised its methodology for determining the rate of return on common equity (ROE) used to establish cost-based rates of public utilities subject to FERC jurisdiction. In Martha Coakley, et al. v. Bangor Hydro Electric Company, et al., 147 FERC ¶ 61,234 (2014)… Continue Reading
Last Friday, the D.C. Circuit torpedoed a hydroelectric license issued in 2013 to Alabama Power Company because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) “declined to factor in the decades of environmental damage already wrought by exploitation of the waterway for power generation and that damage’s continuing ecological… Continue Reading
On April 19, FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) soliciting public comments on whether to revise its long-standing policy governing the processing and approval of new natural gas pipeline facilities under Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act. Although this opens the floodgates to public comment on very contentious issues, it is unlikely to result in…