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On June 15, 2012, Idaho Wind Partners 1, LLC (“Idaho Wind”) filed at FERC a petition for declaratory order, stating that a Qualifying Facility (“QF”) curtailment policy proposed by Idaho Power Company (“Idaho Power”) at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (“Idaho PUC”) would violate the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (“PURPA”). 

On June 15, 2012 and June 18, 2012, various parties submitted Requests for Rehearing and/or Clarification of FERC’s May 17, 2012 Order on Rehearing and Clarification of Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation by Transmission Owning and Operating Public Utilities (“Order No. 1000-A”).  The Requests focused on a variety of issues, including: 1) the definition of transmission facilities “selected in the regional transmission plan for purposes of cost allocation,” 2) whether FERC must first prove that existing rates are unjust and unreasonable before “forcing” public utilities to file particular rates, and 3) related Mobile-Sierra contract issues.

On June 14, 2012, GenOn Energy Management, LLC and GenOn Kendall, LLC (collectively, “GenOn”) filed a pleading with FERC arguing that GenOn’s Kendall plant in Massachusetts may be forced to choose between violating the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) or violating the ISO-New England, Inc. (“ISO-NE”) tariff provisions on reliability.  GenOn filed comments on ISO-NE’s forward capacity auction results highlighting what it argues is an ongoing tension between environmental compliance and reliability rules.

At the open meeting on June 21, 2012, FERC announced the issuance of multiple Notice of Public Rulemakings (“NOPR”) pertaining to: (1) changes to policies governing the sale of ancillary services; (2) changes to the definition of the “bulk electric system;” and (3) revisions to filing requirements for Electric Quarterly Reports (“EQR”).

On June 11, 2012, FERC conditionally approved the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator’s (“MISO”) proposed changes to the resource adequacy provisions of its tariff. FERC conditionally approved a controversial capacity market design, but ordered some significant changes to MISO’s proposal that differ from capacity markets in place in eastern RTOs.

On June 11, 2012, FERC submitted a brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) in defense of its authority to impose a $30 million civil penalty on former gas trader Brian Hunter.  The case is before the court on a petition for review of FERC’s penalty order in the Hunter case and pits FERC against not only Hunter, but the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), which argued to the court that FERC lacked jurisdiction to fine the trader.

On June 1, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) held in National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners v. United States Department of Energy that the Secretary of Energy (“Secretary”) failed to perform a valid evaluation of annual fees collected from generators for disposal of nuclear waste under the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (the “Act”).  The DC Circuit ordered the Secretary to conduct a re-evaluation of the annual fees within six months, but stopped short of ordering the fees suspended. 

On June 14, 2012 the Commission accepted the tariff filing of Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. (“Iroquois”) specifying the priority rules that should apply to Iroquois’ transportation and other services for initial scheduling purposes and in the event of a constraint at either a receipt or a delivery point or along the transportation path.