In this episode, guest hosts Dan Anziska and Coby Beck join Bill Derasmo for an interview with Danielle Spalding, vice president of communications and public affairs at Cirba Solutions. Spalding discusses the importance of battery recycling and building a strong battery supply chain, highlighting the growing demand for energy storage. The group explores the incentives available in the U.S. to support domestic battery manufacturing and recycling, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and various tax credits and tariffs. Listen in to hear more about Cirba Solutions’ commitment to supporting sustainable battery infrastructure.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on May 16, 2025, clarified the conditions under which a state waives its Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 401 water quality certification (WQC) authority. In Village of Morrisville v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the D.C. Circuit rejected arguments by a hydropower licensee that Vermont waived its certification authority under Section 401 by failing to issue a WQC within one year from receipt of a certification request. The applicant unilaterally withdrew and refiled its WQC application twice in an effort to avoid unfavorable certification conditions. Because the applicant withdrew its WQC application to further its own interests, the court held that the applicant could not claim that Vermont waived its Section 401 conditioning authority by not issuing a WQC within a year from the original application.

On May 15, 2025, the FERC’s Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, in coordination with the Office of Electric Reliability, released their 2025 Summer Energy Market and Electric Reliability Assessment, highlighting key industry insights and challenges for the upcoming summer season, measured from June through September 2025. The report anticipates higher-than-average temperatures across the continental United States, coupled with increased uncertainty from extreme weather events. Load is projected to be higher than in the past four summers, leading to noticeably higher wholesale electricity prices across most regions. Despite these challenges, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation forecasts that all regions will have adequate generating resources to meet expected demand under normal conditions. However, certain areas may face tight generation availability during periods of above-normal electricity demand, low wind and solar output, and wide-area heat events, necessitating operational mitigations to maintain reliability. Overall, the report calls for careful monitoring and management of the electric grid to address these challenges and maintain reliability throughout the summer.

On May 14, 2025, FERC accepted Southwest Power Pool, Inc.’s (“SPP”) proposed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (“OATT”) to modify its high priority transmission study planning process. SPP argued these changes will allow transmission studies to better address transmission issues identified by stakeholders by expanding the scope of such studies to allow for considerations beyond economic benefits and costs, such as short-circuit and dynamic stability. FERC accepted the proposed OATT revisions as just and reasonable, finding the revised process to satisfy the goals of FERC Order No. 890 and allow SPP’s studies to address the specific needs of stakeholders.

On May 9, 2025, fifteen democratic states (“Plaintiff States”) sued the Trump Administration in Washington District Court, claiming that President Trump’s executive order “Declaring a National Energy Emergency” (“Executive Order”) is unlawful. The Plaintiff States argue that the Executive Order commands federal agencies to disregard the law and applicable regulations to fast-track activities that will damage waters, wetlands, endangered species, and the people and wildlife that rely on these resources.

On April 29, 2025, FERC partially granted rehearing in the case of Cometa Energia, S.A. de C.V. (“Saavi”) against the California Independent System Operator Corporation (“CAISO”), finding a provision of CAISO’s Business Practice Manual for Reliability Requirements (“Business Practice Manual”) must be included in CAISO’s tariff under the “rule of reason,” as the provision significantly impacts rates and services. In its underlying complaint, Saavi argued that CAISO unlawfully terminated the deliverability status of its 181.5 megawatt generating unit (“Project”). In its rehearing order, FERC agreed that under the “rule of reason” CAISO should have reflected the deliverability status provision of its Business Practice Manual in its tariff, but FERC declined to reinstate the Project’s deliverability status citing concerns over reduced resource adequacy for other generating units.

On April 25, 2025, FERC approved two uncontested stipulation and agreements that propose to settle the Natural Gas Act (“NGA”) section 4 general rate cases filed on May 30, 2024, by two interconnected pipelines, Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC (“Algonquin”) and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, L.L.C. (“Maritimes”). Both settlements established a 13.5% return on equity (“ROE”) for the calculation of rates for new incremental expansion projects following the settlements’ effective dates, and for the equity component of Allowance for Funds Used During Construction (“AFUDC”).

On April 24, 2025, FERC denied NGO Transmission, Inc.’s (“NGO Transmission”) application under 7(b) of the Natural Gas Act (“NGA”) to abandon its jurisdictional facilities and reclassify them from jurisdictional transmission facilities to non-jurisdictional local distribution facilities. FERC concluded that NGO Transmission’s facilities do not directly serve end-use customers in…

On April 11, 2025, FERC issued Order No. 1920-B, which clarified and maintained key requirements from Order No. 1920-A regarding long-term transmission planning and cost allocation. FERC clarified that transmission providers are not obligated to plan for the long-term needs of unenrolled non-jurisdictional transmission providers, but voluntary arrangements are allowed. The order also upheld the requirement for transmission providers to include Relevant State Entities’ agreed-upon cost allocation methods in their compliance filings. Additionally, FERC sustained the consultation requirement with Relevant State Entities before amending cost allocation methods. Lastly, FERC declined to expand the definition of “Relevant State Entity” and rejected certain rehearing requests as procedurally barred. Overall, FERC explained that Order No. 1920-B reinforces the importance of long-term, forward-looking, and comprehensive transmission planning and cost allocation processes to meet the demands of the modern transmission grid. The order was approved by four Commissioners, with Commissioner See not participating.

On April 8, 2025, President Donald Trump issued the Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the U.S. Electric Grid executive order aimed at ensuring adequate and reliable electric generation in the U.S., meeting growing electricity demand being driven by technological advancements (e.g., data centers), and addressing the national energy emergency declared on January 20, 2025. The executive order also intends to help ensure that the electrical grid leverages all available power generation resources, with a particular emphasis on secure resources that have redundant fuel supplies to support extended operations.