On April 18, 2019, FERC issued a unanimous order, supported by all FERC Commissioners, ruling that the California State Water Resources Control Board (“SWRCB”) waived authority to issue a water quality certification under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), 33 U.S.C. § 1641, in the pending hydropower relicensing of the Middle Fork American River Project (“Project”).  Applying the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s (“D.C. Circuit”) seminal opinion in Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC issued in early 2019 (see January 30, 2019 edition of the WER), FERC held that SWRCB’s “active[] participation” in the applicant’s annual withdrawal-and-resubmittal of the license applicant’s request for Section 401 certification since 2012, “on occasion directly requesting the withdrawal and refiling,” constituted an agreement between the applicant and SWRCB that does not re-start the maximum one-year time period for states to act on a request for water quality certification under Section 401.

On April 15, 2019, FERC accepted PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) changes to its Variable Resource Requirement (“VRR”) demand curve as well as key cost inputs to the curve, in connection with PJM’s 2019 Base Residual Auction for the 2022/2023 Delivery Year.  While FERC concluded that PJM’s proposal would produce accurate market signals, encourage appropriate capacity investment, and achieve an adequate level of reliability, the decision sparked a dissent from Commissioner Glick, who argued that PJM failed to show that its proposed VRR curve would produce just and reasonable rates.  Commissioner Glick added that the proposal did not go far enough to correct either oversupply of generation in the capacity market or distorted price signals for Energy and Ancillary (“EAS”) services.

On April 18, 2019, FERC issued Order No. 858, revising its regulations to conform with the America’s Water Infrastructure Act (“AWIA”), which added sections 34 and 35 to the Federal Power Act (“FPA”) authorizing FERC to issue or amend licenses for: (1) qualifying facilities at an existing nonpowered dams (section 34); and (2) closed-loop pumped storage projects (section 35).  In conformance with AWIA, Order No. 858 establishes an expedited hydropower licensing process for projects covered by newly-added FPA sections 34 and 35. 

On April 18, 2019, FERC partially granted a complaint American Wind Energy Association and the Wind Coalition filed against the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”), alleging that the membership exit fee provisions, as applied to entities who are not transmission owners, violated the cost causation principle and resulted in unduly discriminatory rates (the “Complaint”).  FERC found that SPP’s membership exit fee is unjust and unreasonable because it creates a barrier to SPP membership for non-transmission owners and appears to be excessive. Accordingly, FERC directed SPP to eliminate the membership exit fee for non-transmission owners.

On April 5, 2019, FERC accepted PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s (“PJM”) proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“Tariff”) regarding Incremental Capacity Transfer Rights (“ICTRs”).  ICTRs are created whenever customer-funded upgrades increase transmission import capability into a Locational Deliverability Area (“LDA”) in PJM’s system.  Specifically, PJM proposed: (1) to revise the procedures to determine ICTRs; (2) to limit customers to specifying no more than three LDAs in which to determine ICTRs; and (3) to allow customers to request PJM to determine ICTRs, rather than making such determination automatic.  In accepting PJM’s proposal, FERC determined that the requested revisions balanced customer needs with the efficient processing of PJM’s interconnection queue.

On April 10, 2019, FERC dismissed a complaint (“Complaint”) filed by RTO Insider LLC (“RTO Insider”) concerning the New England Power Pool Participants Committee’s (“NEPOOL”) policies prohibiting press and non-member attendance and reporting on NEPOOL stakeholder meetings.  FERC granted NEPOOL’s Motion to Dismiss, stating that it lacked jurisdiction over the NEPOOL policies because NEPOOL is not a public utility and the policies in question do not directly affect jurisdictional rates.

On April 3, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) issued an unpublished opinion dismissing challenges to three FERC orders that granted certificates of public convenience and necessity to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC (“Transco”) for three interstate pipeline projects: the Virginia Southside Expansion Project, the Dalton Expansion Project, and the Atlantic Sunrise Project (see previous reports on challenges to the Atlantic Sunrise Project in the December 12, 2017 edition of the WER and the September 12, 2018 edition of the WER).  The D.C. Circuit found that the North Carolina Utilities Commission (“NCUC”) and the New York State Public Service Commission (“NYSPSC”) lacked standing to challenge FERC’s orders because they did not show a “substantial probability” that gas transported by the Atlantic Sunrise Project would flow to their states, and did not provide any evidence of injury resulting from the Dalton Expansion and Virginia Southside Expansion Projects.

On April 10, 2019, President Donald Trump issued two Executive Orders promoting new energy infrastructure by removing regulatory barriers and revising the Presidential permitting process.  Both Executive Orders aim to streamline the regulatory processes for building new energy infrastructure projects.

On March 29, 2019, FERC released its 2018 staff report on Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) reliability audits (“2018 CIP Report”).  The 2018 CIP Report summarizes new and previously-identified “lessons learned” from CIP audits conducted for fiscal years 2016 through 2018.  The audits evaluated whether certain users, owners, and operators of the Bulk Electric System (“BES”) – generally referred to as “registered entities” – had been complying with the FERC-approved CIP Reliability Standards during the relevant fiscal years.  FERC staff found that the audited registered entities met most of the mandatory requirements of the CIP Reliability Standards, but that there were some potential compliance infractions.  In addition, the staff summarized certain other existing practices that could improve BES security, but are not necessarily required by the CIP Reliability Standards and so therefore were only noted as recommendations in the 2018 CIP Report.

On April 2, 2019, FERC affirmed its decision that the New York Department of Environmental Conversation (“NY DEC”) waived its authority to issue or deny a Clean Water Act (“CWA”) section 401 water quality permit application filed by National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation and Empire Pipeline, Inc. (collectively, “National Fuel”) by failing to act on the application within one year of receipt.  Specifically, FERC held that an agreement between NY DEC and National Fuel to alter the receipt date of the application did not extend the CWA’s statutory one-year deadline for NY DEC to act on the application.