On January 26, 2012, FERC released its first audit reports for Form No. 552 compliance.

On January 23, 2012, FERC issued the first pilot project license to Verdant Power, LLC (“Verdant”) for its Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project No. 12611 (“RITE”).  The RITE project will be a 1,050 kW tidal project located on New York’s East River, and the project will use natural tidal currents to generate power from turbines mounted on the riverbed.

On January 19, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued its latest order in a now long-running debate over so-called “buyer side” market power mitigation measures in RTO capacity markets.  The January 19 Order addressed pending rehearing and clarification requests regarding ISO-New England’s Forward Capacity Market (“FCM”) design.  In the January 19 Order, consistent with recent orders in other markets, FERC affirmed its prior decision that the FCM must have an offer-floor mechanism to keep “out of market” capacity from bidding as a price-taker and depressing market-clearing prices.

On January 19, 2012, FERC denied a petition by the Public Service Commission of South Carolina and the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff to form a federal-state joint board to study the impact of Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) regulations on the reliability and affordability of electric power, but pointed to upcoming events where those issues will be discussed.

On January 19, 2012, FERC issued Order No. 757 “Storage Reporting Requirements of Interstate and Interstate Natural Gas Companies.”   This new rule eliminates the semi-annual storage reporting requirements for interstate and intrastate natural gas companies, effective 60 days after publication of the rule in the Federal Register.

On December 12, 2011 and December 30, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) issued orders allowing developers to recover abandonment costs related  for abandoned transmission projects. 

On January 11, 2012, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the “Volcker Rule” requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  Under the proposed rule, banks would be banned from trading on their own accounts, and would be allowed to make only limited investments in private-equity and hedge fund groups.