Daily on Energy: Feds invite fight with states over energy storage

The energy storage devices, basically large batteries, are seen as necessary to make renewable energy more reliable and the grid resilient against extreme weather events.

The problem with the regulation, however, is FERC’s insistence that it has the power to impose its federal jurisdiction on the state-controlled electricity market to incentivize the use of these devices, utility groups tell John.

This is unacceptable and will likely lead FERC into a court fight to settle the matter, says a source with a utility group opposing the regulation.

FERC has “side-stepped” the Federal Power Act that blocks it from dictating rules on the state side of the electric grid, said Jim Matheson, president and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a trade group representing a key segment of the utility industry.

“In doing so, FERC has undermined the ability of local utilities and regulatory authorities to manage these resources for the benefit of consumers,” he added.

The commission moved ahead with the energy storage rule, despite widespread outcry from nearly all segments of the utility industry and state energy regulators. FERC denied their requests to rehear the rule by giving the states and utilities the ability to opt out of the regulation.

Instead, FERC moved ahead to make it the law of the land.

A Republican voice of dissent: Utilities were emboldened by Republican commissioner Bernard McNamee, who dissented against the storage rule over concerns that it “fails to recognize the states’ interests.”

He supports energy storage and FERC’s authority on the wholesale market side to encourage its use but cannot support the lack of respect for the states’ authority over the retail market.

“I am troubled, however, that the Storage Orders do not fully respect or consider the impact they may have on local distribution systems, the states that regulate those local distributions systems, and local retail customers,” McNamee wrote. “To that end, I dissent from today’s order.”

Utility sources explain the order would remove state and utility control over the use of energy storage devices. For example, if an individual utility needed the resource to restore power after an outage, it may not have the authority to do so and would have to seek permission from the FERC-overseen regional system operators.

Other utility groups that asked FERC for a rehearing said they agreed with McNamee’s dissenting comments.

Creeping FERC: “We have been vocal opponents of FERC’s jurisdictional creep into the realm of state and local authority,” said Delia Patterson, general counsel for the American Public Power Association.

“Unfortunately, it seems that with today’s actions FERC keeps on creeping,” she added.

The Department of Energy has become a vocal proponent of energy storage as part of its push to improve what Energy Secretary Rick Perry refers to as grid resilience. The Trump administration has looked at shoring up resilience as a matter of national security, where it had in the past looked for ways to keep coal and nuclear plants from closing prematurely.

Now with the Republican drive to support energy “innovation” as an alternative to the Green New Deal, energy storage appears to have the administration’s support.

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HOUSE HOLDS FIRST ‘EXTINCTION’ HEARING NEXT WEEK: The House Natural Resources Committee announced Thursday that it will hold its first hearing next week on the recent United Nations report contending that humanity is pushing many species to the brink of extinction.

“We’re in a biodiversity crisis,” Democrats posted on the committee’s Facebook page in announcing the hearing. “This loss of life is one of the worst impacts of #ClimateChange.”

The report said that one million species are threatened with extinction due to a range of factors, including climate change.

The hearing will begin the process of moving dozens of bills aimed at protecting wildlife, including legislation to stop the Trump administration from removing animals from the endangered species list. “We have to hold Trump accountable for his anti-environment agenda,” the post added.

The hearing will be held May 22 in the Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Subcommittee.

DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE BILL TO COMBAT ‘MASS EXTINCTION CRISIS’: New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall and Virginia Rep. Don Beyer introduced a bill Thursday that seeks to combat the “mass extinction crisis” and protect threatened fish, wildlife, and plant species.

The Democrats unveiled the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2019 in response to the U.N. report.

The legislation aims to reverse habitat loss by giving authority to federal agencies to designate National Wildlife Corridors on federal lands to create a national corridor network that would allow wildlife to migrate across the country.

“We must act now to conserve wildlife corridors that would save species and mitigate against the mass extinction crisis we are rapidly hurtling toward,” Udall said.

EPA IG RECOMMENDS RECOUPING 124K FROM PRUITT FOR ‘EXCESSIVE’ TRAVEL: The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog recommended Thursday that the agency consider recovering nearly $124,000 in “excessive” costs from former administrator Scott Pruitt for his first-class travel.

The $123,942 identified by the EPA inspector general represents taxpayer money spent flying Pruitt and a security officer in first or business class instead of coach.

The EPA continues to defend Pruitt, releasing a statement justifying his first-class travel and saying it would be “inappropriate” to recover the money.

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized the EPA for refusing to recoup the travel expenses from Pruitt.

“EPA’s disappointing response to the OIG’s report is yet another in a long line of examples of EPA failing to uphold its mission,” said New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone, the committee’s chairman.

ENERGY COMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING WITH BIPARTISAN FORMER EPA ADMINISTRATORS: Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday plans to host a hearing next month with testimony from a bipartisan group of former EPA administrators to discuss “management and policy challenges” facing the agency.

Those testifying at the June 11 hearing, held by the committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, include: Lee Thomas, William Reilly, Christine Todd Whitman, and Gina McCarthy.

The three Republicans on that list, Thomas, Reilly, and Whitman, have criticized the Trump administration EPA for its environmental regulation rollback agenda and insufficient focus on climate change.

TRUMP CANCELS $1B GRANT TO CALIFORNIA FOR HIGH-SPEED RAIL: The Trump administration on Thursday canceled a nearly $1 billion federal grant to California dedicated to a suspended high-speed rail route to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In a letter to California officials, the Federal Railroad Administration said California “has failed to make reasonable progress on the project.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced in February he was suspending the decade-long planned route between San Francisco and Los Angeles because of costs and logistical problems but would continue with the high-speed rail project through the state’s Central Valley.

Newsom shot back at the Trump administration for canceling the grant, calling the act an “illegal assault on our green infrastructure.”

OIL INDUSTRY SPOKESWOMAN JOINS CHAMBER: American Petroleum Institute spokeswoman Sabrina Fang is leaving the big oil industry group to join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as senior media relations director. Friday is her last day at API. She begins her new role May 28.

The Rundown

Washington Post Jay Inslee wants to be the climate change president. His record shows what a tough sell that issue could be.

Reuters BP faces investor push to beef up fight against climate change

Bloomberg Most profitable job in nuclear today is tearing down reactors

Calendar

TUESDAY | May 21

2 p.m., 1324 Longworth. The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife holds an oversight hearing on “Examining the President’s Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Proposal for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

WEDNESDAY | May 22

10 a.m., 1324 Longworth. The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife holds an oversight hearing entitled “Responding to the Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.”

10 a.m., 2123 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing on “LIFT America” infrastructure and climate legislation.