David Cruthirds brings this report from the Gulf Coast Power Association’s Feb. 5 special briefing: “Challenges & Changes in Energy on the Bayou.” Among the topics discussed were Entergy’s growth plans, Year 1 in MISO South and the RTO’s ongoing seams battles.

This week, we welcome David Cruthirds to the RTO Insider team with his first of hopefully many columns, providing insight into MISO and Southern Co.

Of RTO Insider’s 25 most-read stories of 2014, seven were about PJM capacity market rule changes or the results of the May Base Residual Auction.

This is the space where we would have told you what happened at the PJM Board of Managers’ Enhanced Liaison Committee meeting Tuesday.

After a year of political wrangling, FERC finally has its fifth commissioner. But uncertainty will linger for months at the agency due to Norman Bay’s lack of a policy record and the unprecedented compromise that won his confirmation.

FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur sailed through her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday while Norman Bay was forced to defend his limited policy experience and his running of the commission’s enforcement division. He also found himself having to negotiate a gender politics minefield.

Now that the EPA has issued rules limiting carbon emissions from new coal generators, the industry says carbon capture is neither feasible nor economical - at least not yet.