On March 25, 2013, FERC rejected a rate complaint brought by an individual, Gordon Gooch, against oil pipeline Colonial Pipeline Company (“Colonial”).  FERC dismissed the complaint because Mr. Gooch failed to show he was adversely affected by Colonial’s rates for pipeline service.  Notably, while the Commission unanimously dismissed the complaint, Commissioners Phillip Moeller and John Norris issued separate statements expressing concern with the lack of guidance in the order for future individual complainants.

On March 21, 2013, FERC reversed its policy of assessing annual charges to hydropower licensees for use of their own land that is subject to a power site reservation.

On March 15, 2013, FERC granted a petition for enforcement by petitioners Grouse Creek Wind Park, LLC and Grouse Creek Wind Park II, LLC (together “Grouse Creek”) and announced FERC would again go to court to enforce the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”) against the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (“Idaho PUC”).  FERC’s enforcement action concerning Grouse Creek will take place in conjunction with its enforcement action in a similar proceeding, Murphy Flat (see December 3, 2012 edition of the WER).

On March 22, 2013, FERC approved a Stipulation and Consent Agreement (“Agreement”) between the Office of Enforcement (“Enforcement”) and Rumford Paper Company (“Rumford”) regarding Rumford’s alleged fraudulent conduct in ISO-New England (“ISO-NE”).  Enforcement concluded that Rumford violated FERC’s Anti-Manipulation Rule by adopting and implementing a “scheme” proposed by energy consultant Dr. Richard Silkman of Competitive Energy Services, LLC (“CES”) that defrauded ISO-NE of demand response payments.

On March 21, 2013, FERC issued a final rule approving the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (“NERC”) modified reliability standard for vegetation management along transmission right-of-ways.  The modified reliability standard, FAC-003-2, makes several revisions to the current standard, FAC-003-1, by (1) expanding the applicability of the standard; (2) requiring a minimum vegetation clearance distance (“MVCD”) regardless of whether an outage occurs or not; and (3) implementing a new annual vegetation inspection and work requirement.

On March 4, 2013, FERC accepted the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc.’s (“MISO”) first ever use of a cost of service agreement to avoid reliability concerns presented by a generator’s planned retirement.  Called a system support resource (or “SSR”) agreement, MISO tendered the agreement to the City of Escanaba, Michigan (“Escanaba”)* to prevent the City from mothballing two generating units over concerns that system reliability in the upper peninsula of Michigan could be compromised if the units were permitted to shut down.  Under the MISO tariff, MISO must provide SSR agreements to generators who plan to mothball or retire, but who are needed for some interim period to maintain system reliability.

On March 12, 2013, FERC and the United States Coast Guard (“USCG”) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) regarding applications to site, construct and operate hydrokinetic power generation projects in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States.  The MOU defines hydrokinetic projects as those “designed to harness the power of waves, tides, currents, and the free-flow of rivers and streams.”  The goal of the MOU is to increase cooperation and collaboration between FERC and the USCG while proposed hydrokinetic projects are being considered and reviewed by FERC.