On May 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NOPR”) to update its National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) implementing regulations concerning applications to import to, or export from, liquid natural gas (“LNG”) terminals. In particular, DOE has previously determined that the transportation of natural gas by marine vessels normally does not pose the potential for significant environmental impacts, and accordingly, exports of LNG should be considered a “categorical exclusion” from NEPA review.  Comments are due June 1, 2020. 

On May 12, 2020, FERC clarified that the offer floor price calculation for Special Case Resources (“SCRs”)—demand response resources participating in the New York Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“NYISO”) Installed Capacity market (“ICAP”)—must include any payment or other benefit provided by state-sponsored programs. FERC’s order follows a February 2020 order directing NYISO to apply its buyer-side mitigation (“BSM”) rules to all new SCRs, and finding that the offer floor calculation for SCRs should include only the incremental costs of providing wholesale-level capacity services rather than payments from retail-level demand response programs designed to address distribution-level reliability needs. Commissioner Richard Glick issued a separate statement concurring with FERC’s clarification as to the SCR offer floor price calculation, but added that NYISO’s BSM regime will impose arbitrarily high offer floors on SCRs that are not exercising market power.

Due to the unprecedented and rapidly changing landscape caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, FERC has provided multiple resources and notices over the last two weeks. Three of those relevant releases include an Epidemic/Pandemic Response Plan Resource, a policy statement providing guidance to oil pipelines impacted by the pandemic, and a notice that FERC is temporarily delaying the processing of all hardcopy submissions.

On May 1, 2020, FERC accepted two agreements—an unexecuted Network Integration Transmission Service Agreement (“NITSA”) and a Network Operating Agreement (“NOA”) (together, “Agreements”)—filed by Southwest Power Pool Inc. (“SPP”) to be effective February 1, 2020, subject to the outcome of pending rehearing proceedings. Consistent with FERC’s prior notice policies, SPP had requested waiver of the 60-day prior notice requirement to permit the Agreements to become effective February 1, 2020. While Commissioner Danly concurred with the decision to grant an effective date prior to the filing date, he noted that this practice appears to run afoul of the rule against retroactive ratemaking and urged FERC to reexamine its practice.

On April 30, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) denied Nebraska Public Power District’s (“NPPD”) petition for review of FERC’s approval of the Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) placement of Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association’s (“Tri-State”) transmission facilities in SPP Zone 17. NPPD challenged FERC’s approval on cost causation grounds, arguing that FERC’s ruling was arbitrary and capricious because it failed to find that the benefits accruing to NPPD are roughly commensurate with the costs. The Eighth Circuit denied NPPD’s petition, concluding that FERC provided plausible and articulable reasons for why the costs and benefits of placing Tri-State’s transmission facilities in Zone 17 were comparable, and that FERC’s cost-causation analysis was not arbitrary and capricious.

On April 30, 2020, FERC granted Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, L.L.C.’s (“Tennessee Gas”) petition for declaratory order that requested authorization to charge market-based rates for its proposed firm flexible storage (“FS Flex”) service. In reaching its decision, FERC reviewed whether Tennessee Gas held significant market power in the relevant product and geographic markets where the FS Flex service was to be offered, with the geographic market including east Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama (“Gulf Coast Production Area”). FERC found that Tennessee Gas’s small market share and market concentration in the relevant markets adequately demonstrated that Tennessee Gas lacked market power and that there were no other factors indicating that Tennessee Gas would be able to exercise market power when providing the FS Flex service.

On May 4, 2020, FERC released an interview with its Pandemic Liaison Caroline Wozniak as its second coronavirus podcast. Ms. Wozniak provided insight into her role in FERC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and explained that the pandemic liaison is intended to serve as a single point of contact for…

On May 5, 2020, FERC issued a Notice shortening the period from 21 days to 5 business days for interventions and protests to filings submitted under Federal Power Act (“FPA”) Section 204.  With some exceptions, FPA Section 204 grants FERC the authority to regulate the issuance of securities and assumption…

On May 7, 2020, FERC’s Division of Audits and Accounting issued a guidance letter on how regulated entities may account for expected credit losses on accounts receivable.  The letter, issued to ease regulatory burdens on the energy industry in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, clarifies that Financial Accounting Standard Board’s Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2016-13 is an acceptable methodology for purposes of financial accounting and reporting obligations on jurisdictional public utilities and licensees, natural gas companies, oil pipeline companies, and centralized service companies.

On April 30, 2020, FERC accepted the New York Independent System Operator, Inc.’s (“NYISO”) proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) and its Market Administration and Control Area Services Tariff intended to enhance the integration of its Generator Deactivation Process with its Reliability Planning Process. NYISO proposed to establish a Short-Term Reliability Process using quarterly Short-Term Assessment of Reliability (“STAR”) studies that simultaneously evaluate the reliability impact of both generator deactivations and other changes that may impact transmission facilities (“Proposal”). FERC found that the Proposal will enhance NYISO’s current Generator Deactivation Process into a more efficient and comprehensive Short-Term Reliability Process.