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On January 27, 2009, Florida Power & Light Co. (“FPL”), a subsidiary of FPL Group, Inc., stated that it hopes it can reach a settlement with FERC staff regarding the February 26, 2008 blackout in Southern Florida. If FPL is unable to settle with FERC, it could end up facing severe fines for the incident under FERC’s power to assess civil penalties for violations of the mandatory reliability standards.

On January 23, 2009, President Obama named Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff as the acting Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”). When Commissioner Joseph T. Kelliher announced he was stepping down as Chairman in early January, Wellinghoff and the other Democrat on the Commission, Suedeen Kelly, were seen as the leading contenders for the position.

On January 23, 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) upheld FERC’s decision denying Connecticut’s challenge to the current “hybrid” electricity market. The DC Circuit decided the current hybrid market is just and reasonable as an interim solution whereas the alternative proposed by Connecticut was not adequately supported.

On January 21, 2009, FERC determined that the city of Corona, California must pay costs associated with its interconnection to Southern California Edison (“SoCal Edison”) even though SoCal Edison failed to provide the invoice within the twelve-month deadline in its Interconnection Facilities Agreement (“Facilities Agreement”).

On January 15, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) approved the Sparrows Point Project in Baltimore County, Maryland despite objections from Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff. The project includes a liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) terminal that will have a send-out capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet per day and 88 miles of newly constructed natural gas pipeline.

On January 15, FERC issued an order approving a small solar thermal generating facility to be designated as a Qualifying Facility (“QF”) under section 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (“PURPA”) despite the fact that portions of the same facility are at times used to generate electricity using natural gas.

On December 23, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“DC Circuit”) upheld FERC’s interpretation of the term “markets” as it applies to qualifying facility (“QF”) purchase exemptions found in the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (“PURPA”). The Petitioners, the American Forest and Paper Association (“AFPA”), argued that the term means only competitive markets.