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. 

On December 29, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC or Commission”) issued an order clarifying its policy regarding amendments to pending Federal Power Act (“FPA”) Section 205 rate schedule filings, tariff filings, or service agreement filings. Mississippi Power Company, 137 FERC ¶ 61,241 (2011) 

On January 4, 2012, FERC and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (“NARUC”) announced they will host three forums on reliability issues facing the electric utility industry with the issuance of new Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) emissions requirements. (See December 5, 2011 edition of the WER)  The three reliability forums will coincide with three annual NARUC meetings, and the forums stem from a recent NARUC resolution that called for collaboration with EPA and FERC to address reliability concerns.

On December 15, 2011, Troutman Sanders held a webinar discussion of FERC’s recent order directing Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”) to file an Open Access Transmission Tariff pursuant to Federal Power Act Section 211A authority.  (See December 12, 2011 edition of the WER)