Yesterday, Electricity Law Initiative Director Ari Peskoe spoke to the National Conference of Regulatory Attorneys (NCRA), an annual gathering that offers educational and networking opportunities specifically tailored to government utility regulatory attorneys. Peskoe’s talk explored recent federal court decisions and FERC orders that interpret the jurisdictional line between state and federal authority.
His presentation looked at decisions and orders from the past year about three general topics: 1) wholesale electricity markets; 2) distributed energy resources; and 3) interstate pipelines and transmission. Specific issues included zero emission credits for nuclear plants, feed-in tariffs for small-scale resources, participation of storage and energy efficiency in RTO markets, and competition to develop transmission lines. For each issue, Peskoe summarized key aspects of the decisions and discussed implications for state regulators.