President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act or the Act) into law on March 27. The CARES Act aims to offer economic relief to companies and their employees due...more
In response to the US president’s declaration of a national emergency due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, on March 20 the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a notice to operators...more
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA’s) long-awaited final rule on the minimum safety standards for underground natural gas storage facilities (UNGSFs) was published in the February 12 Federal...more
2/19/2020
/ Energy Policy ,
Final Rules ,
Hazardous Substances ,
Natural Gas ,
Oil & Gas ,
PHMSA ,
PIPES Act ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Safety Standards ,
Underground Storage Tanks
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently released its Annual Report on the Whistleblower Program and Customer Education Initiatives for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The report, which details the operation of the...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed and settled charges on October 24 against Upstream Energy Services LLC (Upstream Energy) for acting as an unregistered futures commission merchant. The Commission’s order...more
President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders on October 9 that may limit the impact of an agency’s use of informal guidance documents. The executive orders express concern that agency guidance, which includes...more
On June 14, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit vacated and remanded two challenged orders and directed FERC to explain or reconsider whether data made available after a challenged rate increase becomes effective...more
Currently at issue before the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is whether the filed rate doctrine prevents a court from assessing the reasonableness of a utility’s rates in the retail market. Under the filed rate...more
FERC issued an order on May 16 rescinding its 2009 policy of issuing Notices of Alleged Violations (NAVs) after the subject of an investigation is given an opportunity to respond to FERC Enforcement Staff’s preliminary...more
The US Supreme Court has denied a petition for certiorari filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which challenged a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit concerning Pennsylvania’s water quality...more
A recent policy statement from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructs departments and agencies—including independent agencies like FERC—to submit “guidance documents, general statements of policy, and...more
Regional transmission operator PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. recently changed its operating manual to require that generating entities experiencing direct or indirect changes in ownership or control notify PJM of such changes...more
The revisions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relate to the Large Generator Interconnection Procedures and Large Generator Interconnection Agreement, and are intended to provide increased certainty and additional...more
Operators of underground storage facilities will need to assess the operational safety of their facilities and document the implementation of safety solutions....more
The proposed rule recognizes the physical and operational characteristics of electric storage resources and distributed energy resource aggregators and removes barriers to their participation in organized wholesale electric...more
Interim Final Rule allows the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to respond immediately to unsafe conditions or practices that pose an imminent hazard to public health and safety or to the...more
The amendments would make the CFTC’s whistleblower awards process more uniform with the SEC’s program and would enable the CFTC to bring enforcement actions against employers that retaliate against whistleblowers....more
9/6/2016
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
CFTC ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Retaliation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Transparency ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
The decision will likely affect the strategies of enforcement targets in electric market manipulation cases.
For the first time, a federal district judge has held that a review of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s...more
7/29/2016
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Agency Deference ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
De Novo Standard of Review ,
Discovery ,
Due Process ,
Electricity ,
Energy Market ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Power Act ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
FERC ,
Market Manipulation ,
Order to Show Cause
On November 17, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order terminating its inquiry on potentially requiring jurisdictional sellers to submit quarterly reports on natural gas transactions....more
FERC found that a storage device using a utility’s distribution system in charging mode should share in the costs of the distribution system.
On June 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) upheld an earlier...more
Reforms are expected to reduce the time and cost required to process small generator requests for Interconnection Customers while maintaining reliability, increasing energy supply, and removing barriers to the development of...more
Filing reminds generators with significant high-voltage tie lines that they can be subject to Reliability Standards typically applied to transmission owners and transmission operators.
...more
The D.C. Circuit clarifies that FERC may prohibit manipulative trading only in markets outside of the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction over commodity futures contracts.
On March 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...more
Rate incentives may become more difficult to obtain; applicants are provided guidance on showings they are expected to make.
On November 15, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Policy Statement...more
11/19/2012