On January 30, 2012, FERC staff issued a notice of alleged violations against Constellation Energy Commodities Group, Inc. (“CCG”).  FERC staff alleges that CCG violated the Commission’s rules against market manipulation and the Commission’s market behavior rules governing communication.

On January 30, 2012, the WER reported that North Dakota Public Service Commission Chairman, Tony Clark, is also currently serving as of the Chairman for the North Dakota Republican Party.  However, Chairman Clark resigned as Chairman for the state Republican Party in November 2010 prior to being elected to lead…

On January 26, 2012, the House Agriculture Committee approved bills that would ease Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) regulation of swaps (i.e., over-the-counter derivatives) by energy companies under 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  Swaps were never regulated by CFTC prior to Dodd-Frank.

On January 23, 2012, FERC issued the first pilot project license to Verdant Power, LLC (“Verdant”) for its Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project No. 12611 (“RITE”).  The RITE project will be a 1,050 kW tidal project located on New York’s East River, and the project will use natural tidal currents to generate power from turbines mounted on the riverbed.

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments on April 13, 2012 concerning its stay of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”).  The Court issued its stay of CSAPR on December 30, 2011. (See January 9, 2012 edition of the WER).

On January 19, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued its latest order in a now long-running debate over so-called “buyer side” market power mitigation measures in RTO capacity markets.  The January 19 Order addressed pending rehearing and clarification requests regarding ISO-New England’s Forward Capacity Market (“FCM”) design.  In the January 19 Order, consistent with recent orders in other markets, FERC affirmed its prior decision that the FCM must have an offer-floor mechanism to keep “out of market” capacity from bidding as a price-taker and depressing market-clearing prices.