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On March 27, 2020, FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee and senior FERC staff members began periodic meetings with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (“NARUC”), the National Association of State Energy Officials, and the National Governors Association to coordinate efforts to help ensure the reliability of the nation’s energy transmission and distribution systems during the coronavirus pandemic. FERC and NARUC are currently urging all state authorities to designate utility workers as essential to the nation’s critical infrastructure.

On Thursday, March 19, in lieu of its monthly Commission meeting, FERC issued a Notice regarding its response to the Novel Coronavirus Disease (“COVID-19”) and the President’s March 13 declaration of a National Emergency.  Chairman Neil Chatterjee delivered comments about the Notice and the Commission’s operations in the coming weeks and months.

On December 2, 2019, FERC staff (“Staff”) issued its annual report (“Report”) on demand response and advanced metering, a high-level review of demand response potential in the retail and wholesale markets. In the Report, Staff highlights that: (i) advanced meters account for more than half of all meters in operation in the United States, (ii) multiple states have received approval for, or proposed, advanced meter deployment programs, (iii) many state regulators appear to support advanced meter investments, and (iv) from 2017 to 2018, there was an almost 8% increase in the overall demand response participation in wholesale markets.

On November 14, 2019, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (“Committee”) held a hearing to consider the nomination of Dan Brouillette as Secretary of Energy. Mr. Brouillette is currently DOE’s Deputy Secretary, and has been nominated by President Trump to replace outgoing Secretary Rick Perry.

On August 29, 2019, FERC issued a final rule revising 18 C.F.R. § 385.2001(a) and requiring that all physical filings and submissions to be delivered to FERC, other than those sent via the U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) are to be sent to FERC’s off-site security screening facility in Rockville, Maryland (see September 17 edition of the WER).  The rule was scheduled to go into effect on November 4, 2019, 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

On November 5, 2019, the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources (“Committee”) held a hearing to consider the nomination of James Danly as a FERC Commissioner. Mr. Danly, currently FERC’s general counsel, was nominated to fill the vacancy on the Commission left by the passing of FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre in January of this year.

On October 28, 2019, the Attorneys General of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island (collectively “State AGs”) wrote to FERC to discuss opportunities for the State AGs and FERC to work cooperatively to promote state-level clean energy policies that benefit consumers and enhance grid reliability. The State AGs expressed an “urgent need” for further action to address climate change’s “massive” environmental, health, and economic harms in their states, and noted that the Commission’s actions related to market design, natural gas siting, and grid reliability significantly impact each state’s ability to achieve their clean energy goals.