Uncategorized

Subscribe to Uncategorized via RSS

On Thursday, FPL Group, Inc. (“FPL”) announced that former FERC Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher will serve as the company’s Executive Vice President, Federal Regulatory Affairs. The newly created position will have Kelliher oversee all of FPL’s federal energy regulatory policy matters. Kelliher will report directly to FPL’s Chairman and CEO.

On Wednesday, members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (“Energy Committee”) discussed Chairman Senator Jeff Bingaman’s (D-NM) revised “discussion draft” transmission siting legislation. Previously, Senator Bingaman released draft legislation on March 10, 2009 (see March 13, 2009 edition of the WER).

On April 21, 2009, Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue signed the Georgia Nuclear Energy Financing Act (“Act”). The Act provides that a Georgia utility shall recover its costs of financing associated with the construction of a nuclear generating facility during the construction period after the proposed plant’s certification by the Georgia Public Service Commission (“GPSC”).

This week, Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-MA) of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee held four days of legislative hearings on the discussion draft of “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” released March 31, 2009.

On April 20, 2009, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) claiming that unnamed power suppliers used a loophole in the Independent System Operator of New England’s (“ISO-NE”) market rules to receive $85.8 million in capacity payments while failing to deliver energy when called upon by ISO-NE. Blumenthal’s complaint asks the Commission to make the companies’ names public and to order them to disgorge their profits.

On Wednesday, FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff addressed a number of ongoing energy issues during a U.S. Energy Association forum, including his belief that renewable energy and demand-side management could significantly mitigate and perhaps eliminate the need for traditional baseload power plants. Additionally, Chairman Wellinghoff discussed the Commission’s ability to regulate carbon credit markets.