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November 29, 2024

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PURPA Case Offers FERC Early Glimpse of Post-Chevron World

FERC is getting an early taste of life without Chevron deference after the Supreme Court remanded a case involving the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) back to an appeals court. 

In a brief order issued July 2, the Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari in Edison Electric Institute v. FERC, remanding it to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for further consideration in light of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. (See Supreme Court Ends Chevron Deference to Administrative Agencies.) 

The case involves a solar plant Broadview Solar developed in Montana that FERC certified as a “qualifying facility” under PURPA, which are supposed to be rated at 80 MW or less. The power plant can produce up to 160 MW, but it can only deliver up to 80 MW to the grid. 

FERC certified the facility as a QF under PURPA over the protests of EEI and its member NorthWestern Energy, the utility required to buy its output. The complainants argued that a plain reading of PURPA indicates that any resource that generates more than 80 MW cannot be a QF and that FERC exceeded its authority in the approval. 

The D.C. Circuit previously upheld the decision, finding that PURPA was unclear on the exact meaning of “power production,” so it deferred to FERC’s interpretation. (See DC Circuit Upholds FERC on Montana PURPA Project.) 

In their petition to the Supreme Court, EEI and NorthWestern argued that the lower court misapplied Chevron by rushing to agency deference while ignoring the plain language of PURPA. 

“But if Chevron is properly understood to condone the result reached here, then this case is further evidence that the time has come to reconsider Chevron by, at the very least, clarifying its limits,” they said in the petition filed last June. 

FERC based its approval on its “sendout approach” for PURPA qualifying facilities that measures how much power they can ship out to the grid, it said in a response filed with the Supreme Court in September. The commission has been using the sendout approach since 1981. 

“The net power that a qualifying facility sends out to the grid is also the amount of power that is ‘capable of being avoided on the [purchasing utility’s] system,’ i.e., the amount of power that the purchasing utility need not get from elsewhere,” FERC said. 

While the solar array at the Broadview facility can produce up to 160 MW, and a co-located battery can discharge up to 50 MW for four hours, it has to convert that direct current electricity into alternative current through an inverter connected to NorthWestern’s grid that is just 80 MW. 

The facility as a whole can supply no more than 80 GW of grid-usable alternating current to the grid at any one time. 

“The battery does not permit the facility to supply more than 80 MW to the grid at any time,” FERC said. “But the array-and-battery design does mean that the Broadview facility can more consistently deliver 80 MW of power to the grid than the facility would be able to deliver using only a 160-MW solar array with the same inverters.” 

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Vandals Smash Solar Array with Construction Equipment

Maine police are looking for the people who plowed a construction vehicle through a nearly completed community solar farm, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. 

The incident happened late June 30 at the Novel Energy Solutions community solar farm in New Gloucester, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office reported. It was discovered around 7 a.m. the next day. 

Community news page NGXchange described the facility as a 975-kW array and reported it was approved by the town Planning Board in 2022. It sits on 10 acres in a rural area of fields, woods and houses, north of Portland and just east of the Maine Turnpike. 

Minnesota-based Novel Energy Solutions could not be reached for comment. 

Portland news station WMTW TV interviewed assistant construction manager Cody Ellich, who said a skid steer was used to smash panels, damage frames and flip over a trailer. 

Two skid steers are visible in the WMTW footage, one of them sitting frozen mid-crunch amid a row of panels, wrapped in a tangle of wires from the solar array. 

“Luckily the skid steer malfunctioned on them. It looks like they were in the middle of causing absolute [mayhem] and it just shut down on them,” Ellich said. 

There were no security cameras on site. 

The Sheriff’s Department said preliminary estimates placed damages at several hundred thousand dollars. 

Solar farms are not universally popular, and NGXchange reported some local opposition to the Novel Energy proposal. 

Online, there was no shortage of opinions in comments on Facebook posts by the Sheriff’s Office and WMTW. 

Some who commented criticized the destruction of property, while others seemed not upset by the news, and some came right out and cheered.  

One commenter even compared the perpetrators to Marvin “Killdozer” Heemeyer, who attained folk hero status in some circles by building an armor-plated bulldozer and using it to level 13 buildings associated with people he held a grudge against in a small Colorado town 20 years ago. 

While some people hold a similar dislike for solar farms, the damage wrought upon them most commonly is the result of severe weather rather than vandalism. 

A 2020 NREL report based on 15,128 property-casualty insurance claims over the preceding six years showed theft and vandalism at the root of not quite 1% of claims, while hailstones accounted for nearly 53%. 

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Mass. Announces Priorities, Advisers for Office of Energy Transformation

Massachusetts’ new Office of Energy Transformation (OET) will focus on cutting peaker plant emissions, eliminating the state’s reliance on the Everett Marine Terminal LNG import facility, and financing distribution grid upgrades in a way that minimizes costs to ratepayers. 

Gov. Maura Healey (D) created the office in March as a subset of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA). The OET is led by Melissa Lavinson, former head of corporate affairs in New England for National Grid, one of the major gas and electric utilities in the state. 

The Healey administration’s July 3 announcement about priorities also described an advisory board for the OET, which features more than 60 members representing a wide range of interests, including utilities, generators, state and local government, climate and environmental organizations, labor, and tribes. 

In a press release, Healey called the new office “an invitation to everyone impacted to come to the table, bring solutions, and make real commitments to move us forward.” 

EEA Secretary Rebecca Tepper noted that the Department of Public Utilities’ recent order on the future of natural gas in the state “set the stage for the transition from gas to electricity, making Massachusetts the first state in the country to require its utilities to prioritize electrification. … We launched the Office of Energy Transformation and Advisory Board to take on this big challenge.” (See Massachusetts Moves to Limit New Gas Infrastructure.) 

Tepper said the office’s three key priorities represent “tangible next steps in ending our reliance on some of the most costly and dirty fossil fuel infrastructure and ensuring that our ratepayers and environmental justice communities are kept at the heart of this transition.” 

The OET and its advisory board will be tasked with charting a course through some of the state’s most pressing challenges of the clean energy transition: how to meet increasing electric demand without increasing reliance on natural gas, and how to electrify heating without dramatically increasing electric rates. 

The power grid’s reliance on generation from natural gas has increased substantially over the past couple of decades, rising from 15% of New England’s electricity in 2000 to 55% of generation in 2023. Overall, natural gas is responsible for more than three-quarters of power-sector emissions in New England. 

This increase has continued in recent years despite the proliferation of renewables, with natural gas generation emissions increasing in 2023 relative to 2022 and on track for another year-over-year increase in 2024. (See NEPOOL Holds Summer PC Meeting amid New England Heat Wave, Climate Protests.)  

This year, the DPU authorized contracts between Constellation and the state’s gas utilities to keep the Everett LNG import facility operating into 2030 to preserve the winter reliability of the state’s gas network. In its approval, DPU also required the utilities to make annual reports on their efforts to reduce their reliance on Everett. (See Massachusetts DPU Approves Everett LNG Contracts.) 

Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, told NetZero Insider the administration “rightfully” is focusing on the issue of Everett “immediately, and not letting it linger.” 

Regarding the OET’s priority of cutting peaking emissions, Dolan applauded the administration’s collaborative approach to considering a range of potential solutions, including battery storage, hydrogen or renewable natural gas. 

“I give the administration a lot of credit for how they have at least initially set this up, and it’s certainly something we’re excited to work on with them,” Dolan said. 

Mireille Bejjani, co-executive director of the New England environmental justice organization Slingshot, said she is “excited about the focus on the Everett Marine Terminal and peaker plants.” 

“We can’t just be continually kicking the can down the road, we have to make a plan for how we’re going to get off of gas,” Bejjani said, expressing hope the OET and its advisory board will provide a forum for charting this path.  

Activists in the state have been vocalizing concerns that Everett ultimately will be replaced by a gas capacity expansion to the region; Enbridge has a capacity expansion proposal — dubbed “Project Maple” — that could come in service around the end of the decade. (See Enbridge Announces Project to Increase Northeast Pipeline Capacity.) 

Some activists have sounded alarm bells about several near-term upgrade projects along Enbridge’s pipeline network, alleging they could help the company expand its gas capacity into the region. Enbridge has said the upgrades are needed to preserve gas reliability (CP24-49 and CP24-21).

“My hope is that, through having this advisory board and intentionally and proactively planning for the transition away from Everett, we’re closing the door to Project Maple,” Bejjani said. 

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Study: Significant Benefits for Merchant Tx Line

ARLINGTON, Va. — High-voltage transmission developer Grid United says its proposed North Plains Connector would provide significant reliability capacity benefits to interregional transmission, according to a study. 

The study, conducted by Astrapé Consulting, modeled the North Plains Connector as two 1,500-MW HVDC lines connecting SPP and MISO to the Western Interconnection and quantified the project’s ability to increase power system reliability. 

Loss-of-load analyses like those performed for new generating facilities indicated a capacity value can be credited to the line. According to the study, when the project’s bi-directional nature and the seasonal diversity among the three regions are considered, it would unlock 3,550 MW of capacity across the three systems, more than the line’s physical capacity. 

“You’re probably wondering, ‘Well, how can it be more than what the line is?’” Grid United President Kris Zadlo asked his audience June 26 during an Infocast conference on transmission and interconnection issues.  

Kris Zadlo, Grid United | © RTO Insider LLC

“It’s due to the bi-directional nature of the lines, so they will provide about 1,750 MW of reliable capacity to pass through the Eastern grid and then it would provide 1,800 MW of capacity for the Western grid,” Zadlo explained.  

The study identified the benefits from connecting meteorologically diverse regions whose demand peaks occur at different times of the day or in different seasons. Using the difference in generation and load profiles improves the grid’s reliability on both sides of the project without adding any new capacity and allows it to add an outsized amount of reliability benefit relative to its physical capacity, Grid United said. 

Zadlo said the study’s findings were similar to an analysis the developer conducted for MISO of a 2-GW interconnection between MISO South and North. 

“They found that a similar interregional line like that would create 3 GW of capacity, 1,500 MW each way,” he said. “When you start building these interregional lines and connect diverse loads and in diverse generation shapes, then we can start sharing energy across the grids. The two areas peak at different times, not only times of the year but during the day because there’s a two-hour time zone.” 

As Zadlo told RTO Insider, “The simple way to say it is the grid has to be bigger than the weather.” 

Grid United and utility ALLETE announced the project in February 2023. The 415-mile HVDC transmission line, capable of up to 525 kV, would connect the western and eastern grids in Montana and North Dakota. It would be the first HVDC connection among three regional markets: MISO, SPP and WECC. (See Transmission Project Would Span Across Interconnection Divide.) 

The developer’s staff are engaging with the various regulatory bodies that will be pivotal before construction can begin. Zadlo huddled during the Infocast conference with Sheri Haugen-Hoffart, a member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission that is among those who must approve the project. 

A Grid United spokesperson said North Plains will have to go through a U.S. Department of Energy environmental review related to its funding and routing process across federal lands. FERC approval also is required, as is that of MISO and SPP, for the merchant project.  

SPP said NERC’s planning coordinator responsibilities define its roles related to merchant HVDC lines. The RTO must identify any reliability needs that arise from a facility interconnecting to the system under its functional control, with the developer providing a solution to address those needs before the project goes into service. 

MISO said any merchant HVDC project that wants to connect to its system must follow its tariff’s procedures.  

Grid United officials said the North Plains project would be paid for by subscribers to the line, which would dead-end into the 1,480-MW coal-fired Colstrip plant in Montana. Western utilities have existing transmission rights from the plant but in the East, the developer would have to rely on bilateral contracts with utilities. 

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NY Expects to Miss 2030 Renewable Energy Target

The architects of New York’s clean energy transition predict the state will fall short of its 70%-by-2030 renewable energy target, perhaps far short, and suggest ways to catch up in the early 2030s. 

On July 1, the Department of Public Service (DPS) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) issued a draft of the 2024 Clean Energy Standard Biennial Review (Case 15-E-0302). 

It indicates that in the two years since the last review, the projected electric load growth is significantly greater and there are significantly fewer renewable energy projects contracted to meet that need. 

Considering how long it takes to develop and build a renewable energy generation facility and connect it to the grid, some revisions are in order, the review suggests: “The amounts of Tier 1 project deployment that would be needed … in order to achieve the 70% goal in 2030 may far exceed what the renewables industry could be expected to develop in this time frame.” 

The review suggests more than a dozen possible changes in New York’s approach to clean energy development in response, including allowing regulated utilities to own and operate renewable energy projects, awarding longer-term purchase contracts for renewable energy certificates and placing less emphasis on bid price when choosing proposals for contract awards. 

After a 60-day comment period, the Public Service Commission will consider actions in response. 

Alliance for Clean Energy New York Executive Director Marguerite Wells told NetZero Insider that the report did not contain a lot of new information for ACE NY and its members, many of whom have been working for years to build New York’s clean energy portfolio. 

She said focusing on 70-by-30 or other arbitrary numerical goals is misguided — everyone working on the clean energy transition, public sector or private, is working as hard as they can to make it happen as quickly as they can.  

Fixes largely are in place or in process for three of the largest hurdles for renewable development — procurement, permitting and interconnection — but there is no easy way to bring down costs, Wells said. “There are a lot of factors that make it expensive to build things in New York and I don’t think any of them can be swept away with a pen.” 

By the Numbers

The 70-by-30 target was mandated in July 2019 as part of New York’s landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which also calls for 100% emissions-free power by 2040 and greenhouse gas emissions at least 85% lower than 1990 levels by 2050. 

The legislation was a collection of visions and directives, not a plan. The complicated and politically delicate task of making and implementing the plans fell to agencies such as NYSERDA and DPS, which typically work at a deliberate pace. 

In the following years, the world moved faster, with costs soaring for contracted renewable projects as they moved through one review after another. 

This culminated in the collapse of the state’s portfolio of contracted renewable projects in late 2023, when developers canceled more than 11 GW of contracts that had become economically untenable to advance to construction. 

So, in the draft review published July 1, 2024, there is a gaping hole in the numbers. 

The review projects a 2030 base load of 164,910 GWh, up from the 151,678 GWh estimated in 2020. (Most of this increase is due to increased demand anticipated from industrial users and electric vehicle charging.) 

To provide 70% of the 2030 base load, New York would need 115,437 GWh of renewables. Its current trajectory, assuming robust response to future contract solicitations and a 30% attrition rate for awarded contracts, yields 73,292 GWh from renewable sources in 2030. 

New York generated just 38,061 GWh of renewable power within its borders in 2022, 80% of it hydropower.  

The review lays out a potential scenario by which renewable energy generation could hit 70% of base load by 2033. That is 120,673 GWh, and reaching it would require procurement of 5,600 GWh of large-scale renewables per year, assuming 30% attrition. 

Progress has been tepid since 2022. In the 17 months from Jan. 1, 2023, to June 1, 2024, the renewables that have come online are estimated to total only about 2,250 GWh annual output. 

There also was 31,865 GWh of nuclear generation in New York in 2022, but that is classified as zero-emissions energy, not renewable energy. It would help the state reach its 2040 goal, but not its 2030 goal. 

Possible Solutions

The review suggests adjustments that could be made to improve the state’s procurement of renewable energy development.

The first suggestion is revising the methodology by which it awards contracts to buy renewable energy certificates and placing less emphasis on a proposed REC price, because recent history shows the cheapest proposals are not necessarily the best value, and perhaps more likely to be unable to proceed into development. 

Other options include: 

    • Create carve-outs for onshore wind in large-scale onshore solicitations (Tier 1) or create separate solicitations, so that wind proposals are not competing with less-expensive solar. 
    • Add strike price adjustment mechanisms for black swan events beyond a developer’s control. 
    • Increase maximum contract length to 25 years for Tier 1 projects and 30 years for offshore wind in recognition of the potential operating lives of these projects. 
    • Allow adjustments to commercial operation milestone deadlines and the consequences of missing them. 
    • Allow regulated utilities in New York to own and operate renewables. 
    • Divide the state into zones and align generation development in each zone with its planned transmission expansion and economic development. 
    • Help small-scale hydropower owners undertake needed maintenance and repairs. 

Headwinds and Tailwinds

Interest rates, inflation, supply chain constraints and black swan events — such as the COVID pandemic and war in Ukraine — are blamed in part for past shortfalls in New York’s renewable energy portfolio. 

The length and cost of the interconnection process continues to limit the pace of renewable development, the review states, despite efforts by NYISO at least as far back as 2019 to mitigate delays. The authors predict that even after NYISO integrates all the FERC Order 2023 requirements into its tariff, interconnection likely will remain a lengthy and costly process. 

The review predicts the already-complex generation siting process will become even more difficult in New York as the easy sites are exhausted and resource protection laws become more stringent. There are obstacles to placing renewables on farmland and forests, which constitute approximately 85% of New York’s total land area. 

Looking forward, the review sees shortages of key components potentially continuing and sees domestic manufacturing expansion as a possible counterweight.  

It also sees a need for large numbers of skilled workers trained to work in the clean energy sector, and details some of the efforts to build such a workforce. And it sees Biden-era financial incentives as a key boost to renewable energy development. 

Response to Report

That renewable energy development is slow, expensive and complicated in New York is news to no one, though state officials do not often say it in so many words or issue a hundred-page report about it. 

It also is frustratingly ironic. New York is among the bluest of states, firmly committed to climate protection in its policies, budget decisions and actions. 

But it is among the most expensive of states, and its home-rule tradition gives its many local governments outsized control over execution of state renewable energy policy. 

Clean-energy advocates have been frustrated at times at how slow and hard-fought progress has been in the five years since the CLCPA was signed into law and celebrated by its supporters as a nation-leading example. 

Environmental Advocates NY Executive Director Vanessa Fajans-Turner said via email: “New York must use every tool at its disposal to meet the 70% renewable electricity target by 2030. This is a legal mandate and a moral imperative for our future. The [Gov. Kathy] Hochul administration holds significant power to act. They should. Today.” 

The Independent Power Producers of New York said via email: 

“The lack of progress towards the state’s climate mandates is disappointing and this report further demonstrates how issues regarding reliability and affordability need to be taken seriously. While progress has certainly been affected by global concerns, such as supply chain issues, inflation, etc., the state has not moved quickly enough to determine the future technologies that are needed to help achieve these targets.” 

IPPNY added: “There can be opportunities for businesses to invest in New York, but the state needs to identify what will be considered a zero-emission source to create these opportunities. Appropriate market signals must be given so that the retirement of reliable generation stops outpacing new generation being added to the grid.” 

Wells of ACE NY said there are some problems beyond New York’s reach (war, the pandemic, inflation, interest rates) and there are problems New York is trying to solve. 

“The industry has known about the challenges and has been advocating for the fixes that are now largely in place for quite a while,” she said. 

Wells is particularly optimistic about interconnection process changes NYISO is making, including measures to discourage speculative requests from developers. 

“I think they have shown incredible willingness to work with the renewables side of the house to make a process that works for both them and will maintain the reliability of the grid,” she said, “so that things can speed up there, and I think that’s really exciting.” 

That began in advance of FERC Order 2023, Wells said, “because NYISO was sort of at the bleeding edge of this problem and they wanted to fix it … in part because of the size and speed at which New York is trying to change over to renewables.” 

Wells flagged an issue not raised in the report — state agencies working individually rather than together, or attaching a low priority to renewable energy if it is not among their traditional duties. 

“I think helping align those agencies to pull all in the same direction is something that that the governor can help direct, but I don’t think there’s any structural changes or new laws that are required at all.” 

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FBI Warns Power Sector of IBR Cyber Vulnerabilities

The FBI warned utilities this week that operators of inverter-based resources will likely see their risk of malicious cyber activity grow along with their increased presence on the grid and issued a set of recommendations to improve their security posture.

The FBI’s private industry notification (PIN), issued July 1, focused on renewable energy resources, particularly residential and grid-connected solar panels. It warned that malicious actors may target these facilities “to disrupt power-generating operations, steal intellectual property or ransom information critical for normal functionality to advance geopolitical motives or financial gain.”

NERC has warned about the potential cyber vulnerability of IBRs before. At FERC’s annual Reliability Technical Conference last year, NERC CEO Jim Robb said that solar and wind plants are “incredibly exciting technologies” that nonetheless come “with real issues.” (See FERC Conference Highlights Challenges of Evolving Grid.) Among these issues is their reliance on digital communications for remote control, broadening the attack surface for threatening entities.

This week’s PIN took these warnings further, noting the FBI’s concern that cyber threats against IBRs are likely to increase because “with federal and local [legislatures] advocating for renewable energies, the [power] industry will expand to keep pace, providing more opportunities and targets for malicious cyber actors.” Examples of government advocacy cited in the report include the Inflation Reduction Act’s incentives for renewable energy and state targets for solar power capacity.

Residential and commercial solar projects are both vulnerable to attacks targeting their inverters, the FBI said, particularly if those inverters use internet-connected monitoring systems. Attackers that gain control of a residential unit’s inverter could use their access to reduce the system’s power output or damage the home’s battery system, if one is present. In addition, cyber criminals or nation-states could target microgrids used to maintain power during an electrical outage.

The notification cited only one actual cyberattack against IBRs in the U.S. This 2019 incident involved “a private company which operates [wind and] solar assets” in California, Utah and Wyoming with a total capacity of about 500 MW into which the company lost visibility after an attacker launched a denial-of-service attack exploiting an unpatched firewall.

“While it was unclear if this specific incident was a deliberate cyberattack targeting this specific company, the incident highlighted the risks posed by a security posture that relies on outdated software,” the document said.

Recommendations provided in the report include establishing and maintaining strong relationships with local FBI field offices, and proactively addressing cyber espionage and interference by:

    • monitoring network activity for suspicious traffic;
    • updating company networks, firewalls and antivirus software to patch security vulnerabilities; and
    • reporting unexpected visits to company facilities or suspicious solicitations of employees.

The FBI also urged utilities to assume they will be the victim of a cyber incident and prepare accordingly. Suggested preparations include maintaining offline, encrypted data backups; reviewing the security posture of third-party vendors; documenting and monitoring external remote connections; and implementing a plan for recovering sensitive or proprietary data.

Identity and access management are also important preparedness steps and can be addressed by implementing strict password controls (such as requiring long passwords, using industry-recognized password managers and locking out accounts after multiple failed logins) and requiring multifactor authentication. Entity cybersecurity staff may also regularly review servers, workstations and active directories for new and/or unrecognized accounts, and segment networks to prevent the spread of ransomware.

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Calif. Lawmakers Consider $10B Climate Resilience Bond

California lawmakers are poised to place on the November ballot a $10 billion climate resilience bond measure that would provide $850 million for clean energy projects, including offshore wind. 

Senate Bill 867, which would send the bond measure to voters, must be passed by July 3 to meet the deadline for the November ballot. The legislature’s monthlong summer recess starts July 4. 

Lawmakers from the Senate and Assembly announced June 30 that they had reached agreement on the language of the bill, known as the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024. 

On July 1, the bill was ordered to a third reading in the Assembly. It needs a two-thirds vote of each house and a majority vote at the ballot. 

An earlier version of the bill proposed a $15.5 billion bond measure. Even at the lower $10 billion amount, lawmakers are calling it “the single largest investment in public funding for climate resilience in California’s history.” 

The bond measure would provide: 

    • $3.8 billion for safe drinking water, drought, flood and water resilience. 
    • $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest resilience.
    • $1.2 billion for sea level rise and coastal resilience. 
    • $1.2 billion for biodiversity and nature-based climate solutions. 
    • $850 million for clean energy. 
    • $700 million for park creation and outdoor access. 
    • $450 million for extreme heat mitigation. 
    • $300 million for climate-smart farms, ranches and working lands. 

At least 40% of the funds would go to projects that benefit vulnerable populations or disadvantaged communities. 

Clean Energy Projects

Of the $850 million earmarked for clean energy projects, $475 million would go to the California Energy Commission to support the development of offshore wind. That would include building or upgrading port facilities to accommodate the manufacturing, assembly and staging of offshore wind equipment. 

An additional $325 million would go toward clean energy transmission projects. And $50 million would be available for long-duration energy storage, zero-emission distributed energy backup assets, virtual power plants or demand-side grid support.

The $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention and forest resilience would include $35 million to reduce wildfire risk related to electricity transmission. 

The proposed bond measure comes as the state faces an increasing sense of urgency over the climate crisis. 

“We are already seeing the devastating effects of climate change — more extreme heat waves, catastrophic fires and floods, coastal erosion, and severe droughts,” Sen. Ben Allen (D), a lead author of SB 867, said in a statement June 30. “Unless we take action now, the cost to address these impacts will become increasingly overwhelming.” 

The California Natural Resources Agency’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment predicts that climate change will cost the state $113 billion a year by 2050 unless action is taken. 

Every dollar spent on resiliency saves $6 in disaster relief, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates cited in the bill. 

Bond Fatigue?

The Assembly Natural Resources Committee held an informational hearing on the bill July 2. 

Assemblyman Josh Hoover (R) said that while there are “great things” in the bill, “I do remain concerned that there’s a bit of bond fatigue among the electorate.” 

Other lawmakers noted that budget cuts made for the new fiscal year in response to a $46.8 billion shortfall had hit climate programs. 

“We’ve got some pretty gloom-and-doom budget circumstances before us. There might not be other resources in front of us to be able to make these investments,” said Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia (D), one of the bill’s authors. 

Garcia said the bill would also provide an economic stimulus to parts of the state with high unemployment rates or where impacts of climate are felt disproportionately. 

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Federal Judge Stays Biden’s LNG Export Application Pause

The U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana on July 1 issued a stay on the Biden administration’s pause in considering new applications for LNG export facilities. 

The decision from Judge James Cain approved a motion from 16 Republican state attorneys general, led by Louisiana’s Liz Murrill. 

President Joe Biden announced the pause in processing new applications to export gas to non-free-trade-agreement (FTA) countries this January in order for the Department of Energy to update its approval process and study the impact of additional LNG export facilities. 

The pause did not impact applications that already were moving through the process, including Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 project being planned for Cameron Parish, La., that FERC approved last week at its monthly open meeting (CP22-21, CP22-22). The project, which still must be approved by DOE, would be able to export 20 million metric tons per year. Commissioner Allison Clements dissented from the approval because she said the commission failed to fully consider the project’s greenhouse gas emissions and its impact on the local fishing industry. 

Cain noted in his decision the pause in processing new applications was done without any publication in the Federal Register that explained or justified it and that DOE has not opened any rulemaking related to it. 

“The defendants’ choice to halt permits to export natural gas to foreign companies is quite complexing to this court,” Cain wrote. “Defendants remark that the purpose is to update its information as to how these exports to non-FTA countries might affect the economy and inherently consumers of natural gas here in the United States, and the effect on the environment. However, … DOE has made updates to its studies on several occasions without the president making an announcement of an unprecedented climate change action, and without … DOE declaring a wholesale ‘pause’ on pending current and future applications of exports to non-FTA countries.” 

Cain wrote that “it is undisputed that natural gas is cleaner than coal” and that gas being cheaper leads to reduced coal use around the world. Thus, “it appears that … DOE’s decision to halt the permit approval process for entities to export LNG to non-FTA countries is completely without reason or logic and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy,” he wrote. 

The court agreed with the AGs that their states would face irreparable harm from the pause because of lost revenue and market share. They also were deprived of a procedural right because the policy was not properly announced under the Administrative Procedure Act’s processes, it found. 

Murill welcomed the court’s ruling. 

“As Judge Cain mentioned in his ruling, there is roughly $61 billion of pending infrastructure at risk to our state from this illegal pause,” Murill said. “LNG has an enormous and positive impact on Louisiana, supplying clean energy for the entire world, and providing good jobs here at home.” 

The Sierra Club noted that the stay does not require authorization of new facilities, but DOE will have to continue its review of pending projects that were paused. DOE also can continue working on its review of what analysis the “public interest determination” requires for approval of LNG facilities. 

“Deciding whether or not to approve LNG export applications has serious consequences for how much Americans pay for energy and whether there is clean air and water to support healthy local communities and ensure thriving local industries, like fishing,” Sierra Club Staff Attorney Louisa Eberle said. “DOE has the authority — and obligation — to adequately review the true impacts of LNG exports, and we believe they will come to the same conclusion we have, which is that expanded LNG exports are not in the public interest and the pending applications should be denied.” 

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Portland General Electric Formalizes EDAM Commitment

Portland General Electric (PGE) on July 2 formalized its commitment to join CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM), making it the second entity in the Western U.S. after PacifiCorp to sign an implementation agreement.

CAISO CEO Elliot Mainzer commented on PGE’s move in an announcement.

“Portland General Electric has been an excellent partner in our real-time electricity market and has been very engaged in our work with stakeholders to design the Extended Day-Ahead Market,” Mainzer said. “PGE’s formal commitment to join EDAM provides more positive momentum for building a fully integrated Western day-ahead market that will benefit all market participants and their customers.”

PGE serves 1.9 million customers in Oregon with a peak load of nearly 5,000 MW. The utility announced its intent to join EDAM in March, which will “enable greater access to lower-cost renewable energy resources that are available from a more geographically diverse system,” CAISO’s announcement said.

The implementation agreement, which CAISO and PGE signed June 28, marks an important step in efforts to shift the “joint” authority that the Western Energy Imbalance Market’s (WEIM) Governing Body shares with the ISO’s Board of Governors over WEIM and EDAM matters to “primary authority,” which would require FERC approval but not a change to California law.

Tariff provisions to make that change won’t be triggered until EDAM obtains implementation agreements from a “set of geographically diverse” WEIM participants representing load equal to or greater than 70% of CAISO balancing authority area annual load in 2022. (See Pathways Initiative to Act Fast on ‘Stepwise’ Governance Plan.)

Tariff Waiver Sought

In a related move, CAISO on July 1 filed with FERC for a limited tariff waiver to facilitate PGE’s entry into the market.

The ISO’s tariff requires that an EDAM implementation date not be less than six months or more than 24 months after the date the EDAM entity implementation agreement becomes effective. Because PGE isn’t expected to begin participating in EDAM until fall 2026, CAISO requested a limited tariff waiver from FERC to support the utility’s participation more than 24 months after the effective date of the agreement.

“The complexity of enabling PGE’s transmission and technology to work in a compatible manner with the CAISO systems may require additional efforts over a period of slightly longer than 24 months, meaning it is not possible for PGE to implement its participation as an EDAM entity until the fall of 2026,” the ISO said. “Granting the waiver will provide additional time to allow the CAISO and PGE to effectively synchronize and coordinate their onboarding and readiness activities with PacifiCorp’s spring 2026 schedule and vendor engagement activities.”

The ISO and PGE agreed to perform parallel implementation work with PacifiCorp. (See PacifiCorp Fully Commits to CAISO’s EDAM.)

“Keeping PGE and PacifiCorp on the same EDAM implementation schedule is more efficient and creates the opportunity for joint implementation meetings and workshops and early vendor engagement that would otherwise not be available,” CAISO said. “Granting this petition will benefit all customers participating in the day-ahead market by facilitating PGE’s participation in EDAM.”

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Busy Summer Ahead for Pathways Initiative

Participants in the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative face a busy meeting schedule this summer as the group’s leaders look to advance on parallel fronts to develop a “regional organization” (RO) to assume governance of CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) and Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM). 

The Pathways Initiative hit a key milestone last month when CAISO began a stakeholder process to adopt the effort’s “Step 1” proposal for the ISO to elevate the “joint” authority the WEIM’s Governing Body shares with the ISO’s Board of Governors over WEIM matters to “primary” authority. (See CAISO Kicks off Stakeholder Process for Pathways Initiative.) 

“The CAISO board will be taking up the final recommendation with the EIM Governing Body sometime later this summer, or early fall, and then we’ll be working on the tariff language that will be required to actually make these changes,” Western Freedom Executive Director Kathleen Staks said during a June 28 meeting of the Pathways Initiative’s Launch Committee, of which she is a co-chair. 

Step 2 of the group’s efforts will be more complicated, said Launch Committee member Evie Kahl, general counsel at California Community Choice Association (CalCCA). That step, part of “Phase 2” of the committee’s work, deals with both the legislation needed to transfer WEIM/EDAM authority to the RO and the issues around forming the RO. 

Step 2 will consist of eight separate workstreams dealing with: the stakeholder process for an RO; CAISO-related issues such as the financial liability associated with governing an electricity market; analysis of the existing CAISO tariff; public interest issues; RO formation issues, such as form of incorporation; RO governance issues, such as board nominations and funding sources; California legislative issues; and other legal issues. 

Kahl emphasized that the CAISO tariff analysis is a “really important” workstream that will “cross over” into other streams. 

“The objective really is to define the portions of the tariff that will fall within the RO’s new scope of authority,” Kahl said. “And what it’s requiring is this foundational analysis that the team has started, looking at the existing CAISO tariff and looking at what sections are uniquely market functions, [and] which are uniquely [balancing authority] or transmission operator functions.” 

The “most challenging question” is how to handle sections of the tariff that touch on both the market and BA functions, she said. 

Kahl also said the public interest workstream will incorporate input from the state regulators who initiated Pathways a year ago, as well as work from consumer advocates and other “important voices.” 

“It’s going to be examining things like, ‘What are the public interest obligations that are going to be a part of the RO’s responsibility?’ For example, a responsibility to minimize consumer costs and, in undertaking market design, to respect state and local authority,” she said. “It’s also going to be looking at the role for state regulators and consumer advocates in the process of designing the market and tariff approval process.” 

Kahl set out the public workshop schedule for many of the workstreams, including: 

    • July 25 — RO formation and governance, which will discuss issues such as the RO’s state of incorporation, principal place of business and entity formation status. The workshop also will cover the nominating and selection process for the RO board and number of board seats; RO and CAISO board joint sessions for areas of shared authority; the potential for reserving board seats for particular sectors; and the transition from the WEIM Governing Body process to that of the RO.
    • July 31 — Public interest, to discuss the roles for a states committee and consumer advocates. 
    • Aug. 2 — Tariff analysis and CAISO issues, which will deal with what authority might be retained by CAISO; RO compliance, financial obligations and liability; and RO/CAISO staffing structure. The workstream also will cover RO authority matters. 

Special Process for Stakeholder Process

Staks said the Pathways Initiative is undertaking a different approach for the largest workstream, the stakeholder process, for which the Launch Committee has retained nonprofit group Gridworks to facilitate four meetings. This workgroup also will include some non-committee members, she said. 

Matthew Tisdale, executive director at Gridworks, said his company received funding from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation to support its work with Pathways. The workstream will focus on comparing how other RTOs/ISOs in the country, as well as the Western Power Pool’s Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP), engage with stakeholders. It will examine seven key elements: 

    • Among competing priorities, who selects the policy topics for stakeholder attention? 
    • Who among stakeholders frames and presents a policy problem and proposes a range of solutions? 
    • In stakeholder workshops, who is responsible for facilitating discussion and advancing an agenda? 
    • Will the stakeholder process include voting, and if so, how frequently should sector-based voting occur? 
    • How should sectors be defined and weighted for voting purposes? 
    • What kind of forums and committees use to organize themselves? 
    • How often and through what nomination process should topics be subject to a stakeholder process? 

Gridworks’ role in the workstream is to “organize” and “summarize,” not to “editorialize,” Tisdale said. It aims to provide stakeholders with a summary in early September. 

The stakeholder process work group will hold virtual workshops July 11, July 24, Aug. 2 and Aug. 28, all starting at 9 a.m. PT. 

Budget Update

The Pathways Initiative raised about $500,000 to complete its Phase 1 work (mostly committed to developing Step 1) but under-ran its budget by $150,000. That money will be carried over and applied to Phase 2, according to Jim Shetler, general manager of the Balancing Authority of Northern California and co-chair of the Launch Committee’s Administrative Work Group. 

The budget for Phase 2, which the committee expects will run from this month to the fourth quarter of this year and produce a Step 2 proposal, remains about $450,000, for which the committee is seeking funders, Shetler said. 

Phase 3, which is intended to implement Step 2 and likely will run from this fall to the first quarter of 2026, has a budget of $636,000.

Shetler said they will seek additional funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for Phase 3. 

DOE in April rejected the Pathways Initiative’s first attempt to secure $800,000 in agency grants. But later that month, Launch Committee Co-Chair Pam Sporborg, of Portland General Electric, said that, based on DOE feedback, the group likely would reapply with a “more detailed and specific proposal” on how it would spend the money.