Webinar: FERC Ruling and Feed-in Tariffs

This webinar reviews Feed-in Tariff policy options for states, given the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) July 15, 2010 ruling that state legislatures and PUCs are preempted from establishing a FIT rate that is inconsistent with PURPA.

Carolyn Elefant, a lawyer whose specialization is FERC energy practice and policy, reviews the FERC ruling and discuss its implications for states. The FERC ruling essentially confirmed that to avoid preemption under PURPA, a PUC or state must set a rate that does not exceed the avoided cost of the purchasing utility (defined as a rate which does not exceed the incremental cost to the electric utility of alternative electric energy).

Karlynn Cory, Senior Energy Analyst at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), provides an overview of the options explored in NREL’s new publication, A Policymaker’s Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design, including a discussion of how to design a FIT that will comply with FERC regulations (such as a state mandated offer to purchase at fixed price, auctions, just and reasonable fixed price safe harbors, and so on).  She provides an overview of the NARUC-DOE partnership, an EU and US FIT policy overview, and implications of the FERC July 2010 order.

Speakers:

• Carolyn Elefant, Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant (slides)
• Karlynn Cory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) (slides)