Energy Insights to Keep Companies Current
Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions letting federal courts hear constitutional challenges to enforcement proceedings at federal agencies opened the door to similar challenges to in-house enforcement proceedings at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), McGuireWoods Washington, D.C., partner Todd Mullins and associate Emily Song wrote in Law360.…
Continue Reading High Court Opens Door to Suits Against FERC, McGuireWoods Attorneys Write in Law360
Over the past year, there have been major Federal Energy Regulatory Commission developments as more cases moved from the agency to adjudication in the courts. McGuireWoods’ update to its innovative FERC Enforcement Reporter — led by lawyers Carrie Mobley and Corban Coffman — organizes energy enforcement cases from 2005 to present by topic and presents…
On March 17, 2023, the Texas Court of Appeals for the Third District issued an opinion reversing two winter storm Uri orders by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) that had raised power prices in ERCOT to $9,000/MWh. ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, manages the electric grid for most, but not all, of Texas and serves approximately 26 million customers.
The decision by the Court of Appeals in Luminant Energy Company LLC v. Public Utility Commission of Texas, No. 03-21-00098-CV, has the potential to affect certain transactions made under the PUCT’s orders. The Court of Appeals not only reversed the PUCT’s orders but remanded them for further proceedings. Should the Court of Appeals’ opinion be upheld, it is unclear how the PUCT will resolve the pricing issues, but it would likely need to hold proceedings to address them. The opinion also raised questions about the authority of the PUCT to issue price caps for Texas’ energy market. …
Continue Reading PUCT Winter Storm Uri Orders Reversed and Remanded by Texas Court of Appeals
Debtors in bankruptcy have broad authority to shed unfavorable contracts through the executory contract rejection process, subject to approval of the bankruptcy court. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), on the other hand, has exclusive jurisdiction over any request to modify or abrogate a “filed rate” under the Federal Power Act and the Natural Gas Act, which includes certain power purchase agreements and natural gas transportation contracts. For years, debtors and distressed counterparties faced uncertainty as to whether a bankruptcy court’s rejection order could fully relieve the debtor from performing under a filed-rate contract or if further relief from FERC (potentially applying the stringent “public interest” standard set out in the Mobile-Sierra line of cases) may be necessary to excuse future performance.
Continue Reading More Courts Reject FERC’s Jurisdictional Claims in Battle Over Rejection of Filed-Rate Contracts in Bankruptcy
On July 8, 2022, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a notice of regulatory enforcement discretion for particular gathering lines. Gathering lines are those pipelines that transport gas from a current production facility to a transmission line or main (see 49 C.F.R. § 192.3). The notice specifically applies to existing Type C gas gathering pipelines with an outer diameter greater than or equal to 8.625 inches, but less than or equal to 12.75 inches. It also applies only to violations of safety requirements identified in 49 C.F.R. § 192.9 until May 17, 2024.
Continue Reading PHMSA Issues Notice of Limited Enforcement Discretion for Some Gas Gathering Pipelines
On March 25, 2022, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued a notice regarding a new interim large load interconnection process that is effective immediately. The interim process applies to load interconnection requests — usually large, flexible loads with accelerated timelines, such as crypto-miners — that have not been modeled and studied in a completed ERCOT planning assessment (e.g., regional transmission plan, full interconnection study or regional planning group review). The new interim large load interconnection process applies to:
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Continue Reading Crypto-Miners, Large Loads Subject to New Interim Interconnection Process in ERCOT
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Office of Enforcement (OE) has historically focused on four “priorities,” as described in its annual Report on Enforcement. Those four priorities included (1) fraud and market manipulation; (2) serious violations of Reliability Standards; (3) anticompetitive conduct; and (4) conduct that threatens the transparency of regulated markets. In the 2021…
