GLG News by FERC Energy and Utilities Experts: Lawyers

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recently issued Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Standards of Conduct applicable to natural gas and electric transmission providers would establish revised standards for preventing anti-competitive information sharing between those trasmission...

A clear understanding of this area of the law has become critical  because the risks from noncompliance can subject an entire entity, including upper management, to significant fines ($1 million per day/ per violation), criminal penalties and disgorgement of undue profits.  Many energy...

The Surface Transportation Board has proposed to change its methodology for calculating the railroad industry cost of capital.  The cost of capital is used for several regulatory purposes.  Lowering the cost of capital, as proposed by the agency, could increase the rate relief available to...

1. A Bosporus pipeline bypass would alleviate the congestion in the crowded straits, provide access to a deepwater port, and potentially allow more crude oil shipments from Russia and Central Asia.2.  Similar proposals for a direct bypass have been discussed for more than a decade and none has...

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court's decision in Popowsky underscores the importance of rate-related benefits in demonstrating that a proposed merger affords sufficient "affirmative benefits" to satisfy the statutory "public interest" standard. Popowsky indicates that promises of continued "good corporate...

- Gas is an increasingly important commodity in world energy markets and a price-fixing cartel would raise alarm bells around the globe- Russia, Iran and Qatar are the three largest gas reserve owners.  President Putin recently visited Qatar to expand energy cooperation.  Russia is close to...

-- D.C. Circuit decision in National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. v. FERC vacates and remands Order No. 2004 as applied to natural gas pipelines. -- The Commission's theoretical concerns with potential anti-competitive conduct, without actual evidence of such conduct, were insufficient to justify imposing...

FERC's Kern River decision opens the door to future changes in the Commission's traditional DCF model for setting pipeline equity returns. FERC indicates a willingness to consider future DCF proxy groups that include properly adjusted MLP distributions. FERC also indicates a willingness to consider...