Jill Drum

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On March 31, 2025, FERC granted in part and denied in part Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s (Basin Electric) petition for declaratory order seeking transmission incentives for the Roundup-Kummer Ridge Project, the Tande-Finstad-Leland Olds Project (LOS-Tande Project), and the NE Williston-Folvag 115 kV-Judson-East Fork-Tande Project (Springbrook Project) (collectively, “Projects”). FERC granted the Hypothetical Capital Structure Incentive and the Abandoned Plant Incentive to both the LOS-Tande Project and Springbrook Project, but denied the Hypothetical Capital Structure Incentive for the Roundup-Kummer Ridge Project.

On March 20, 2025, FERC denied Ponderosa Power, LLC’s (“Ponderosa”) complaint alleging that NorthWestern Corporation’s (“NorthWestern”) application of its large generator interconnection procedures (“LGIP”) was unjust and unreasonable or unduly discriminatory or preferential. The dispute centered around NorthWestern’s requirement for Ponderosa to fund approximately $23 million in network upgrades to accommodate the interconnection of its 70 MW wind-powered generation facility located in Musselshell County, Montana (“Project”).

On February 20, 2025, FERC found that the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”) Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) appears to be unjust and unreasonable because it does not address with clarity or consistency the rates, terms, and conditions of service that apply to co-location arrangements and therefore directed PJM to show cause as to why the OATT, the Amended and Restated Operating Agreement of PJM, and Reliability Assurance Agreement Among Load Serving Entities in the PJM region (collectively, “Tariffs”) are just and reasonable or explain what changes to the Tariffs would remedy FERC’s concerns regarding co-location arrangements.  In a separate order issued on February 20, 2025, FERC also rejected a proposal from certain Exelon transmission-owning utilities (“Exelon Companies”) to revise their transmission rate schedules attached to the PJM OATT to clarify that co-located load that is synchronized to the grid must be designated as network load or receive point-to-point transmission service.

On January 24, 2025, FERC withdrew its 2022 draft Greenhouse Gas (“GHG”) Policy Statement and terminated the associated proceeding. FERC determined that, after reviewing the entire record, issues concerning GHG emissions are better analyzed on a case-by-case basis when raised by parties in proceedings. Commissioners Phillips, Rosner, and Chang issued a joint concurrence noting that, although FERC is withdrawing its draft GHG Policy Statement, FERC still considers GHG emissions under its National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) analysis and balances project benefits with potential adverse consequences under the Natural Gas Act (“NGA”).

On August 20, 2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued an order rejecting, without prejudice, a contested proposal from Basin Electric Power Cooperative (“Basin”) to establish special wholesale power sales rate schedules for cryptocurrency (“crypto”) operations and other new large loads.  While FERC expressed sympathy for Basin’s concerns regarding its ability to serve expected load growth reliably and economically, FERC found that Basin failed to justify its proposal to treat crypto currency mining loads differently from other large loads and therefore rejected the differential rate proposal.

On July 9, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) vacated orders issued by the FERC that required six wholesale power sellers (the “Sellers”) to issue refunds to customers for power sales made above FERC’s “soft” price cap during the 2020 heatwave in California.  The court held that FERC “should have conducted [a] Mobile-Sierra analysis prior to ordering refunds,” and therefore remanded the orders so that FERC could “change its refund analysis for above-cap sales going forward.”

David Rosner and Lindsay See have been sworn in as FERC’s newest Commissioners on June 13 and 28, 2024, respectively. The FERC Open Meeting on June 27 marked Commissioner Rosner’s first Open Meeting and Commissioner Allison Clements’ last Open Meeting before her term expired on June 30, 2024. The U.S. Senate previously confirmed now-current Commissioners Rosner and See on June 13, 2024, along with Judy Chang. It is likely that Judy Chang will be sworn in as Commissioner in the coming days. Judy Chang’s swearing in will bring the agency to its full complement of five commissioners.  

On June 28, 2024, the United States Supreme Court (“Supreme Court”) overruled its prior decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (“Chevron”) in a 6-3 vote in Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, et al. (“Loper Bright”). The Chevron doctrine has required federal courts to defer to administrative agencies’ interpretations of statutes the agency administers when the underlying statute is ambiguous. Under the Loper Bright ruling, federal courts will not defer to administrative agencies in interpreting ambiguous statutes and instead must exercise their judgment in determining whether the agency acted within its statutory authority. The decision will likely have a substantial impact on both regulated industries and federal agencies such as FERC.