On September 23, 2010, FERC settled with RRI Energy, Inc. and RRI Energy Wholesale Generation LLC (collectively “RRI”) over open access transportation violations, and RRI agreed to pay a civil penalty of $750,000. The settlement concluded an investigation by FERC Enforcement that identified potential violations from January 2000 to March 2008.

On September 23, 2010, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) passed a renewable portfolio standard (“RPS”) that will require 33 percent of the electricity sold in California to come from renewable energy.   The new standard was created in response to the Governor’s Renewable Electricity Standard Order in 2009, and the state law Assembly Bill 32, the law seeking to bring emissions down to 1990 levels by the year 2020.  

On September 22, 2010, the New York Independent System Operator (“NYISO”) released its 2010 reliability needs assessment (“RNA”) which was approved by the Board of Directors.  This is the fifth RNA NYISO has released since 2004, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) approved NYISO’s Comprehensive System Planning Process.

On September 21, 2010, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced the Renewable Electricity Promotion Act, a stand alone renewable energy standard (“RES”) bill.  The bill will require utilities to acquire 3 percent of their power from renewable resources beginning in 2012, and the requirement will increase up to 15 percent by 2021. 

On September 20, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued a Final Rule, Promoting a Competitive Market for Capacity Reassignment.  This Order No. 739 lifts the price cap for all electric transmission customers reassigning transmission capacity, and the new rule is an attempt to develop a market for capacity reassignment in lieu of direct acquisitions of capacity from a transmission owner. 

On September 16, 2010, FERC rejected the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) request for rehearing and/or clarification of a March 18, 2010 directive to NERC to propose revisions to its Rules of Procedure, among other items. (see March 19, 2010 edition of the WER)

On September 9, 2010, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) announced more than $37 million in funding to 27 projects that will help develop marine and hydrokinetic (“MHK”) technologies.  This is the largest grant ever given to MHK technologies which generate power from the ocean, rivers, and streams.

On Friday, September 10, 2010, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued a notice that the agency had decided not to issue a one-year exemption as grandfathered relief for bilateral exempt commodity swaps (“bilateral swaps”) operating under the current exemption pursuant to the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”).  The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) as implemented, deletes this exemption provision from the CEA as of July 15, 2011, but the Dodd-Frank Act did give the CFTC the discretion to grant grandfather relief to parties.

On September 16, 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued two orders denying rehearing requests for Tres Amigas LLC’s (“Tres Amigas”) transmission project.  FERC denied the request for rehearing of the order where the Commission refused to disclaim jurisdiction over Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”) if it connected with the Tres Amigas Project.  Also, FERC denied the rehearing request of the order that conditionally approved the negotiated rate authority for transmission service at the Tres Amigas Superstation facility.