On January 4, 2012, FERC and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (“NARUC”) announced they will host three forums on reliability issues facing the electric utility industry with the issuance of new Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) emissions requirements. (See December 5, 2011 edition of the WER)  The three reliability forums will coincide with three annual NARUC meetings, and the forums stem from a recent NARUC resolution that called for collaboration with EPA and FERC to address reliability concerns.

On January 19, 2012 from 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Troutman Sanders will host a webinar presentation 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.

On December 14, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) rejected a market power mitigation filing by Duke Energy Corporation (“Duke”) and Progress Energy Inc. (“Progress”) (together the “Applicants”) in connection with their proposed merger. 

On December 15, 2011, Troutman Sanders held a webinar discussion of FERC’s recent order directing Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”) to file an Open Access Transmission Tariff pursuant to Federal Power Act Section 211A authority.  (See December 12, 2011 edition of the WER)

On December 7, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC or the “Commission”) issued an order directing the Bonneville Power Administration (“Bonneville”) to file revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) to provide for transmission service on terms and conditions that are comparable to those under which Bonneville provides service to itself and that are not unduly discriminatory or preferential.

On December 5, 2011, Entergy Corporation (“Entergy”) and ITC Holdings Corp. (“ITC”) announced that Entergy will divest its transmission business and merge those assets into ITC. Entergy currently owns approximately 15,700 miles of transmission in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.  After completion of the merger, ITC will become one of the nation’s largest transmission companies with over 30,000 miles of transmission.