On April 27, 2010, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (“Senate Energy Committee”) considered President Obama’s nomination of Cheryl LeFleur, the former CEO of National Grid’s U.S. electric distribution business, as well as the re-nomination of Commissioner Philip Moeller, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). [Read more →]

On April 23, 2010, FERC accepted a filing by ISO New England Inc. (“ISO-NE”) and the New England Power Pool Participants Committee (“NEPOOL”) to revise market rules for the ISO-NE Forward Capacity Market (“FCM”).  The Commission set several contested issues for paper hearing, but allowed ISO-NE to implement all of the proposed changes for the upcoming auction in August. [Read more →]

On April 23, 2010, FERC conditionally approved the New York Independent System Operator’s (“NYISO”) proposed revisions to their Market Administration and Control Area Services Tariff (“Services Tariff”).  Specifically, NYISO’s proposed revisions dealt with the issue of “Customer Compliance with Laws, Regulations and Orders.”  [Read more →]

On April 21, 2010, the U.S. Department of the Interior (“Interior” or “DOI”) issued the nation’s first Request for Interest for the development of renewable energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf.  The Request for Interest covers federal waters in between the shipping routes of the Delaware Bay off the coast of Delaware.  [Read more →]

On April 19, 2010, the Southwestern Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) filed proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) to include a new transmission upgrade cost allocation method called the “Highway/Byway” method, which moves away from allocating costs on a zonal basis to a broader SPP-wide basis.  [Read more →]