Energy Legal Blog

On March 16, 2009, Amaranth Advisors asked FERC to reconsider its earlier order rejecting the settlement that it had reached with the FERC Staff.  As previously reported, FERC rejected the uncontested settlement agreement with a simple statement that read: “”[h]aving considered the gravity of the alleged violations, the potential remedies for those violations if proven to have occurred, and the remedies offered in the Settlement, the Commission concludes that the settlement is not in the public interest and hereby rejects it.” (more…)

The writing appears to be on the wall for FERC’s contested decision to tag retroactively financial-only traders in the Midwest ISO (MISO) with past Revenue Sufficiency Guarantee (RSG) charges.   The writing on the wall comes in the form of a February 27 decision of a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in City of Anaheim v. FERC, which struck down FERC orders that retroactively increased the invoices to purchasers from western power generators who had been required to sell power during the 2000-01 California energy crisis pursuant to “must-offer” obligations that the Secretary of Energy imposed on them. (more…)

In the hopes of accelerating development of a “smart” electric transmission grid, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on March 19, 2009, proposed a policy that will favor and incentivize investments in Smart Grid technology, which FERC believes will advance the efficiency, security, reliability, and interoperability of the electrical grid.  In addition to levelizing peak demand through improved demand response, a Smart Grid is believed to be able to better manage the expected demand from plug-in vehicles and the expected variable output from renewable energy resources.  FERC invited comments from interested parties, which are due May 11, 2009. (more…)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on March 10 a comprehensive national registry of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Under authority of the Clean Air Act, the registry will require a wide range of industrial GHG sources, including upstream producers of fossil fuels and industrial gases, manufacturers, electricity generators, and producers of chemicals, cement and metals, to monitor and report their GHG emissions.  Public comments on the proposed registry must be submitted to EPA for consideration 60 days following publication of the rule in the Federal Register, which has not yet occurred. (more…)

The US Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced an agreement in principal to resolve a longstanding inter-agency dispute over jurisdiction to regulate hydrokinetic power generation on the outer continental shelf (OCS). (more…)