Ari Peskoe
@AriPeskoe
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Director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law. Tweets about energy law and policy. Tweets are my own and do not represent views of anyone else.
Joined February 2012
Why isn’t the power industry building more transmission? Adopting advanced transmission technologies? Connecting new projects faster?.In Replacing the Utility Transmission Syndicate’s Control, I diagnose the fundamental issue: regional governance. 🧵.
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Great to see a Presidential candidate weighing in on negative wholesale market prices.
Trump: We will be creating so much electricity that you'll be saying, please, please, president, we don't want any more electricity. We can't stand it. You'll be begging me. No more electricity, sir. We have enough. We have enough.
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Transmission policy is clean energy policy. Short of enacting a national CO2 or clean energy standard, crafting a national transmission policy that facilitates clean energy deployment may be the most significant decarbonization policy. It’s happening. This week. (Hopefully.).
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IS THE UTILITY TRANSMISSION SYNDICATE FOREVER? . My new paper explores how investor-owned utilities came to dominate transmission, FERC’s efforts to wrest it from IOU control, how IOUs evaded competition in transmission development, and what comes next -.
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If have natural gas service, you're probably paying for this American Gas Association campaign to undermine electric heat pumps.
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Just found my favorite detail in a vintage utility ad. THEY'RE PLAYING MONOPOLY
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Republicans are planning to attack three decades of FERC’s efforts to replace monopoly power with competition. It is a regressive plan steeped in techno-pessimism. The plan includes legal challenges and an overhaul of FERC policies if Rs win the White House. First, the lawsuits:.
FERC strains to get big transmission plan moving
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How is utility control over transmission blocking clean energy and raising costs?. Here’s a look at allegations by renewables or transmission developers that utilities or RTOs are acting anti-competitively. The complaints are about interconnection, planning, rates, and more!.
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Is Students Hot on Conserving Kilowatts (SHOCK) the greatest name ever for a utility rate case intervenor?
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We’ve all had some fun with this latest “campaign promise,” but how does it intersect with Project 2025’s agenda about power markets and electric utilities?. A quick look at what Project 2025 says about interstate wholesale electric power markets….
Great to see a Presidential candidate weighing in on negative wholesale market prices.
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Quick fact check for those of you listening to the Supreme Court: PJM is not a computer under Boston. PJM is an idea, a dream, an aspiration that lives inside all of us.
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Congratulations to the electric utility industry for being among the first direct beneficiaries of the Supreme Court's overturning of Chevron!.
PURPA news -- The US Supreme Court vacates a DC Circuit decision about PURPA's 80 MW limit on qualifying renewable facilities
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New (to me) details about the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP):
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Is this the correct meme for the morning after John Oliver airs a 20 minute report about the thing you work on?
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The US is not building enough interregional transmission because utility regulation provides the wrong incentives. Utilities dominate under the status quo and block attempts at changing the rules. We need FERC or Congress to press forward.
Utility companies are blocking the construction of new transmission lines and delaying renewable energy projects, argues @AriPeskoe
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The Department of Energy and FERC have at least 16 open proceedings, funding opportunities, or studies on transmission development and oversight. Here’s my attempt to catalog them all, starting with FERC rules, other FERC proceedings, US DOE $$$, and finally DOE studies. 🧵.
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🚨🚨 GA Election Hot Take 🚨🚨.The decisive FERC seat that will shift the Commission from majority R to D will be open no later than July 1. Presumably, the nominee will be not be held up by the Senate majority leader, as I had anticipated. This is good news.
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Thread highlighting comments filed on FERC's transmission Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. I'll proceed in this order: .1-state and fed officials.2-RTOs .3-Utilities+trades .4-Developers+trades .5-NGOs.6-Consumers. I'll try to go through all 170 comments . .
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We should not rely on the utility industry for innovation - not business model innovation, not technological innovation, not operational innovation.
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Can we retire two acronyms and a very wordy phrase? Let's replace "Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) or Independent System Operators (ISOs)" and the clunky "RTO/ISO" with Independent Transmission Organizations (ITOs).
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State Energy Law -- final reading list for my spring 2024 Harvard Law School course:
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5th Circuit holds that Texas right of first refusal law, which blocks competition in transmission development, violates the dormant Commerce Clause -
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🎺🎺🎺.FERC will release new standards for utility and RTO generator interconnection processes. A tiny bit of background:.
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5 year old daughter, after I pointed out a power plant along the highway:. "[Little Brother] is interested in trucks. I'm into power plants.".
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100 years ago, Harvard Law School offered only 10 courses for second-year students. One of those courses was "Public Utilities" and it was taught by a future Supreme Court Justice. What a time! . Today, HLS offers 500+ courses, and yet none devoted to public utility regulation.
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What if instead of "taking over" renewable generation (a competitive industry that continues to grow), the federal government invested in electric transmission, which is still dominated by monopolists? . I'm just spitballing here on a Friday morning. .
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DC Circuit kills SEEM, the faux-market concocted by Southern Company, Duke, and other southeastern utilities to consolidate regional control.
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I hereby ban the word 'deregulated' as a modifier for utilities or electricity markets. 14(ish) states restructured utilities. Utilities in around 30 states participate in organized or centralized interstate markets administered by a third party. Thank you.
A USA Today article says the EPA says 17 states have “fully deregulated electricity markets.” The claim is wrong. The article doesn’t link to a specific source, but I found this description on the EPA website.
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Building interstate transmission is a major policy challenge. I spent 20 minutes on an AI platform tackling a piece of the puzzle: What would electric transmission look like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? . Pleased to share some preliminary results:.
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FERC should close the loophole that forces ratepayers to pay for utilities’ political advocacy when conducted by a trade association. If a utility can’t get cost recovery, its trade association shouldn’t either. Our filed comment: .
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Send that straight to the Smithsonian.
"I trust most of my colleagues have heard of hot girl summer. I rise today to declare the start of Hot FERC summer." . -@repcasten
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What’s the proof? In a footnote, it says that devastation from Winter Storm Uri in 2021 was due to subsidized renewables and “a lack of dispatchable generation.”.There was in fact plenty of dispatchable capacity in TX in 2021. It just didn’t work.
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Why is ERCOT not regulated by FERC? What would it take to bring ERCOT under FERC’s authority? Why don’t the 2 DC lines connecting ERCOT to the Eastern Interconnect bring it under FERC’s authority? . I’ll highlight a couple of docs others have posted recently and add one more:.
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A 21st century power system. Sounds simple, no? But here in America you might say we’re living in the past. You may ask, why can’t we just build one? That I can tell you in one word-transmission!. Transmission, transmission…Transmission!.Transmission, transmission…Transmission!
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Sorry for making this, especially if someone already did this one:
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Or - and I know this isn't easy - we could REGULATE monopoly utilities by demanding that they do what's best for consumers instead of giving them a cut of the savings. Throwing money at them is easier. Regulation is hard: information asymmetries, lack of effective governance, etc.
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Because you are incapable of precise definition. Because you balance competing interests. Because you are not bound by any single formula. You are --- Just and reasonable. **HOLIDAY GIFT ALERT**.For you and the energy law nerds in your life - .
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Phew. FERC dismisses NERA's net metering petition. Good work everyone (except NERA). Sounds like it's on procedural grounds - no controversy or harm under Rule 207.
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New survey shows SURGING interest in energy law among law students! 100% increase in just one year!! LET'S GO!!!
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Paper also strongly suggests that FERC should be disempowering utilities, rather than granting them regional transmission cartels. From the paper: "The incentives for incumbents to block new transmission lines are also increasing as new renewables enter.".
Excellent new paper that (to me) shows why @FERC and PUCs need to encourage transmission. This legal but anti-competitive incentive to withhold transmission is widespread. Bipartisan FERC Commissions 10-25 years ago acted on this basis. @CatieHausman.
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Wow. #energytwitter should definitely not mess with the results of these surveys from a front group backed by Duke Energy -
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Last week the Texas PUC said it cannot permit construction of an interregional transmission project proposed by a developer. Why? Because the state's pro-utility, anti-competition law prevents any new transmission developer from ever building in Texas.
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WOW. FirstEnergy Corp. paid the $4,333,333 to Company 1 for Public Official B’s benefit with the intent and for the purpose that, in return, Public Official B would perform official action in Public Official B’s capacity as PUCO Commissioner and Chairman"
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A totally normal thing when your 6-year old brings home this badge from Girl Scout camp is to wonder whether utility ratepayers paid for it.
Remember, one of the benefits of the investor-owned utility model is that you get to pay for alcoholic drinks for the pilot of the corporate jet. 34 times in 2020 alone. #monopoly #Minnesota
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Amazing work by the litigation teams @Earthjustice and @selc_org! Not only did they beat FERC in the DC Circuit -- no small feat -- they also beat 3 of the largest electric utility companies.
DC Circuit kills SEEM, the faux-market concocted by Southern Company, Duke, and other southeastern utilities to consolidate regional control.
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Highlighting 17 Comments Filed on FERC’s Transmission Planning Rule 🧵. You *should* read all 200 filed comments and meaningfully respond to each one in your reply comment (due 9/19). Otherwise, you can read about 17 comments that reflect the range of issues and views:.
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SUMMARY: unanimous order kills the NOPR quickly and quietly; FERC proposes resilience definition and directs RTO/ISOs to explain how they are addressing resilience and whether any new action is required.
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Ooops. Spotted an extra word in this otherwise excellent article in E&E today.
Utilities could cause trouble for Senate permitting bill
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Two year old is very excited about the "digger" working on our nearby FERC-jurisdictional natural gas pipeline. I told him we could use eLibrary to look up the docket number. He said: "docket number."
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Yesterday, investor-owned utilities in PJM alleged that a comment I filed at FERC was “defamatory.” They don’t explain further. Their overreaction highlights an odd dynamic that I see often in utility regulation.
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Project 2025’s main goal is to raise market prices received by coal, gas, and nuclear and/or raise market costs paid by wind and solar. Project 2025 calls this “reliability pricing” but it has only half-baked ideas (at best!) for how to implement it.
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What's the worst utility scam?.-Transmission right-of-first refusal laws?.-Ratepayers paying for industry lobbying?.-Front groups publishing misinformation?.-The "Regulatory Compact" myth?.
On this episode, with Utility Scam Awareness Day around the corner, @U_U_A_S' Monica Martinez and @Entergy's Chris Peters discuss utility impostor scams, advanced scam tactics like SEO poisoning, scam signs, and more. 🎧 Listen now: #StopScams
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It's finally hit me that in 2022 the Supreme Court will hear arguments about the Clean Power Plan --- a regulation that is not in effect, never went into effect, and will never go into effect.
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PURPA news -- The US Supreme Court vacates a DC Circuit decision about PURPA's 80 MW limit on qualifying renewable facilities
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Devastating news for those of us who traditionally close our seders with an eLibrary search.
eLibrary & @FERC applications will undergo maintenance and will be intermittently unavailable from 9:30 pm Friday, April 15, to noon Saturday April 16.
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For the 7 people on here who care about preemption of state laws under the Federal Power Act -- . Here's MISO's recently filed brief in the Iowa Supreme Court - and a quick recap of what it means for regional transmission in Iowa --.
MISO has waded into the battle over who will build the Iowa portions of its long-range transmission projects two months after a court found the state’s right-of-first-refusal law unconstitutional. See Full Story: Writer: Amanda Durish Cook
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The person with the least credibility at FERC is this operator who repeatedly tells us that the conference will begin 'momentarily.'.
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In my new paper - A Clean Energy Agenda Runs Through The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - I explain why FERC is an indispensable part of President-Elect Biden's clean energy agenda. FERC affects the cost and pace of the clean energy transition.
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Incredible and doubly incredible that this happened to Simon.
For the past two years, Entergy Arkansas hasn’t sent me an electric bill. The last bill I got from them was from July 2021 for a negative $32.70. Then a couple weeks ago, they sent me a bill for $4,125.66. Yikes. Let's talk bills and utility responsibilities in a thread.
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Hot take: lawyers should ignore The Bluebook. Citations in a given work should be 1) internally consistent and 2) provide enough info so the reader can easily track down the source. Bluebook's value is that it standardizes 1) but no one should spend a second on Qs like this:.
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Reading list for State Energy Law, a course I am teaching this semester --
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Just listened to 2+ hours of Senate hearings about FERC nominees. FERC is a utility regulator. There were zero questions about utilities. I don't think the word 'utility' was spoken.
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Great to see utility regulators from 17 states support interregional transmission expansion!.
Great letter from OPSI & OMS calling on MISO & PJM to coordinate on interregional planning!. "The role that Tx, and in particular interregional connections, will play in the development of a grid that delivers continued benefits to electricity consumers is increasingly apparent."
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Here's the reading list for State Energy Law, a once-a-week course I am teaching this semester.
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Utility-aligned group asks FERC to assert jurisdiction over sales from behind-the-meter resources when output exceeds demand or where energy is "designed to bypass" customer load - - . In other words, the group seeks to end net metering as we know it.
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I'm looking forward to working with @powerlinesorg and proud to be on its Advisory Board.
Today, we are excited to announce the launch of @powerlinesorg as a nonprofit organization focused on modernizing utility regulation to accelerate affordable, reliable, and clean energy for American energy consumers!
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Reading List / Syllabus for State Energy Law, Harvard Law School - Spring 2019 (includes links to all readings)
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While we're waiting for the FERC meeting to begin, please enjoy this paragraph from a @CLaFleurEnergy dissent:
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FERC moves to end utilities' clean energy tax -- .FERC finds that allowing utilities to profit from transmission upgrades paid for by new generators may be unjust and unreasonable and unduly discriminatory.
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I thought it would be hard to pick the worst argument in this pro-utility pro-ROFR article that recycles tired talking points. But then I read this excerpt -
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For the practicing non-academic, non-regulatory attorneys out there: That one thing from admin law that you actually remember from law school is now no longer relevant. Sorry.
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Lots of opportunities for power system modelers in the 5,000+ page "stimulus" bill -
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This is (I think) the clearest example of a utility opposing an interregional merchant transmission line.
But in October 2023, Entergy filed testimony saying the project would "harm [Entergy Mississippi] customers." Why? One argument, the project "has not identified how much of its 3,000 MW capacity will be injected in to or withdrawn from MISO South", except, it has.
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Reading list for "Powering the US Electric Grid" reading group at Harvard Law, Fall 2018 -
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A non-exhaustive list of the most arbitrary, capricious, and outrageous determinations in FERC’s PJM MOPR order:. In no particular order . (and making no predictions about litigation).
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Counterpoint: No, it's not. The article actually opens with this claim - "Coal is so essential it is unbelievable." Indeed.
Coal is essential to America’s prosperity and security, and DOE is dedicated to supporting ingenuity to make coal even cleaner. This is part of our “all-of-the-above” energy approach, which also includes increasing natural gas production.
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FERC asked trade associations specific questions about how they spend ratepayer money. The trade associations' response: No. I am blown away that EEI, AGA, INGAA, and NEI simply declined to respond to FERC's questions.
FERC should close the loophole that forces ratepayers to pay for utilities’ political advocacy when conducted by a trade association. If a utility can’t get cost recovery, its trade association shouldn’t either. Our filed comment: .
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When utilities are out of arguments, they play the reliability card. Reliability is, of course, the most serious issue. But given how frequently they make these claims to ward off competition, it's impossible to know when to take their claims seriously.
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I just filed an amicus brief that I co-wrote with @joeleisen for 26 law profs on the origin, history, and meaning of the word ‘discrimination’ in utility law. The brief supports FERC in the case about PJM’s MOPR. Why did we write this brief? .
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It took me 60 pages to explain and protest the PJM utilities' attempted coup. FERC will decide if it's successful.
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I have a carbon price joke but everyone knows it already and no one wants to hear it again.
I have an energy storage joke though its rather charged.
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Controversial?? According to who?.
11/6 letter from Republican Chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Cathy McMorris Rodgers to FERC Chair Phillips instructing him to stop work on any pending “partisan” or “controversial” matter.
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Here's a 6-hour course about utility regulation offered by the national association of state regulators (@NARUC) for state regulators . taught by utility executives. Great opportunity for industry to educate its own regulators!
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It appears that tomorrow FERC will finally issue its order on the PJM capacity auction (aka Reliability Pricing Model or RPM) and state energy policies. A recap of the key decision points:.
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Wow. PJM's rehearing request: FERC's order "does not maintain the careful balance followed by prior FERC orders and, in fact, disrupts the balance that has successfully worked to accommodate the interests of states and integrated utilities"
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This is all designed to punish wind and solar, but the biggest winners will be utilities. By weakening FERC and diminishing RTOs, Rs will empower monopolist utilities to chart the industry's future.
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It's done. I'm done. Sorry for sporadically ruining your feeds. I'll have a few additional thoughts on all of this, but no more comments to summarize.
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