Troutman Pepper Locke

Subscribe to Troutman Pepper Locke's Posts

On October 9, 2013, FERC filed a petition (“Petition”) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California for an order affirming FERC’s assessment of civil penalties totaling $435 million against Barclays Bank PLC (“Barclays”) and four of its traders for manipulating electricity markets in and around California, along with disgorgement of profits in the amount of $34.9 million.

On October 1, 2013, FERC accepted and suspended PJM Interconnection, LLC’s (“PJM”) demand resource offer revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) and Reliability Assurance Agreement, and set the matter for a technical conference.  FERC stated that the technical conference will explore issues raised in the proceeding that warrant further discussion.

On Monday, October 7, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States (“Supreme Court”) denied a petition for certiorari challenging a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) decision that upheld an April 2011 Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) order revising the FCC’s previous interpretation of Section 224 of the Communications Act of 1934, which regulates pole attachment rates.  The FCC’s new interpretation limits the price that electric utility companies can charge telecommunications companies to hang wires and other equipment from utility poles.  The Supreme Court did not state its reasons for denying the petition.

On September 30, 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) Division of Market Oversight (“DMO”) released responses to Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) regarding commodity options.  The topics addressed in the responses to the FAQs included general information regarding the filing of the CFTC Form TO (Annual Notice Filing for Counterparties to Unreported Trade Options), trade options reporting, and exceptions to commodity options being regulated as swaps.

On September 25, 2013, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) released a final rule increasing the civil penalty maximums for pipeline safety violations.  The rule increased the maximum penalties from $100,000 to $200,000 per day for each violation, and from $1,000,000 to a $2,000,000 maximum for a related series of violations.

On September 19, 2013, FERC issued a final rule approving the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) modifications to four requirements for electricity reliability.  The modifications were proposed to close perceived reliability gaps associated with generator interconnection facilities without the need for most generator owners or operators to register as transmission owners or operators.

On September 20, 2013, Clearwater Paper Corporation (“Clearwater”) filed with FERC a petition for enforcement pursuant to section 210(H) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”) against the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (“Idaho PUC”).  The petition alleges that the Idaho PUC impermissibly moved to allocate, without compensation to a Qualifying Facility (“QF”), one half of all Renewable Energy Credits (“RECs”) created through that facility’s PURPA QF contracts within Idaho to the utility purchasing the QF’s power under a PURPA contract.