Troutman Pepper Locke

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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 December 19, 2023, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) Grid Deployment Office released final guidance on how it will designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (“NIETC”) pursuant to Section 216(a) of the Federal Power Act (“FPA”) and opened the first submission window for public participation and recommendations. The guidance explains that NIETCs will be narrow geographic areas where DOE has identified present or expected transmission capacity constraints or congestion that adversely affects consumers. Designation as a NIETC opens federal funding and financing opportunities, pursuant to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“IIJA”) and the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) and conveys eminent domain rights to developers in certain circumstances where FERC is authorized to permit and site the project. Public comments and recommendations are due February 2, 2024.

On June 30, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”), sitting en banc, upset FERC’s long-used practice of granting itself more time to consider requests for rehearing of its orders by issuing “tolling orders.” FERC’s prior use of tolling orders prevented parties from seeking judicial review of a Commission order, but did not stay the effect of that order. The crux of the court’s decision is that the Natural Gas Act (“NGA”) gives FERC four express options to address a request for rehearing, all of which must be taken within thirty days, but deciding only to grant itself more time is not one of those options. The decision marks a sea change in FERC procedure, and raises a host of questions for pending and future proceedings under both the NGA and its companion statute, the Federal Power Act (“FPA”).

On July 2, 2020, FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee and Commissioner Richard Glick issued a joint statement requesting that Congress pass legislation “providing FERC with a reasonable amount of additional time to act on rehearing requests involving orders under both the Natural Gas Act and the Federal Power Act.”  The statement goes on to say that “any such legislation should make clear that, while rehearing requests are pending, the Commission should be prohibited from issuing a notice to proceed with construction and no entity should be able to begin eminent domain proceedings involving the projects addressed in the orders subject to those rehearing requests.”

On September 29, 2017, United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) Secretary Rick Perry took the unusual step of proposing a rule for final action by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”).  Secretary Perry’s initiative, a DOE-issued Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) under section 403 of the Department of Energy Organization Act (“DOE Act”) (42 U.S.C. § 7173), urges FERC to act extremely quickly to enact rules requiring regional transmission organizations and independent system operators (“RTOs/ISOs”) to provide just and reasonable rates for “fuel-secure” generation units (e.g., coal and nuclear units).  See Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule, Docket No. RM17-3-000, at 4–5 (Sept. 29, 2017) (“DOE NOPR”). 

Donald J. Trump (R) was elected 45th President of the United States yesterday, a development that will likely change the way energy companies interact with regulators and the federal government. Without addressing the political issues associated with the race itself, we provide the following initial thoughts on practical issues regarding FERC associated with a shift in political party control of the Executive Branch, an event that has not affected Washington, D.C. since late 2008/early 2009.

Specifically, FERC currently has three sitting Commissioners, all Democrats. Mr. Trump’s election will permit his administration to dramatically change the make-up of the Commission. He may be able to appoint as many as four new Commissioners in 2017, and will almost certainly appoint a new Chair upon his inauguration. Notably, given the timing of the confirmation process for new FERC Commissioners, the current sitting Commissioners could be in control of FERC through at least April of 2017 assuming none of them resign in the interim. We explain below how these FERC changes will happen and provide a general sense of the timeline for new Commissioners and new leadership to be installed.