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.

On January 19, 2012, FERC denied a petition by the Public Service Commission of South Carolina and the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff to form a federal-state joint board to study the impact of Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) regulations on the reliability and affordability of electric power, but pointed to upcoming events where those issues will be discussed.

On January 19, 2012, FERC issued Order No. 757 “Storage Reporting Requirements of Interstate and Interstate Natural Gas Companies.”   This new rule eliminates the semi-annual storage reporting requirements for interstate and intrastate natural gas companies, effective 60 days after publication of the rule in the Federal Register.

On January 19th, Troutman Sanders hosted a webinar presented by partners Peter Glaser and Daniel Larcamp on the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology (“MACT”) Rule, the Cross State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”) Stay and the obligation to comply with grid reliability standards.  The presentation discussed the following: