Skip to main content
Insights
Inflation Reduction Act
Industry Groups Alert FERC that the Viability of Contract Formation and Contract Sanctity are at Stake in Review of Initial Decision
On May 22, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission”) issued Opinion No. 537, [1] reversing the March 28, 2014 Initial Decision [2] in part and remanding for clarification and further findings by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). The issues...
Africa Energy Update
The latest news on legal and regulatory developments in Africa's energy sector with perspectives from our offices in London, New York and Seattle. Bracewell Alerts and Publications Regional Enforcement Snapshot of Southern Africa 22 March 2016 | Energy Legal Blog®...
U.S. Futures Exchanges Liberalize Exceptions to Position Limit Aggregation Rules
Effective March 18, 2016 and April 4, 2016 [1] respectively, the major U.S. futures exchanges, ICE Futures U.S., Inc. (“ICE”) and the CME Group exchanges (“CME Group”), [2] have amended their rules regarding aggregation of positions for purposes of determining...
FERC Report on Transmission Investment and Related Technical Conference
At the March 17, 2016 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") meeting, FERC's Office of Energy Policy and Innovation presented a report assessing the effectiveness of FERC's transmission investment policies, including Order No. 1000 reforms and identifying possible policy changes ("Report")...
Monthly Futures Exchange Issuance Report: December 2015
December's Highlight On November 4, 2015, the Chairman of the CFTC, Timothy Massad, gave a speech to the Futures Industry Association Futures and Options Expo, in which he focused on the subject of swap data reporting. The Chairman noted the...
Supreme Court Upholds FERC's Demand Response Rule, Order No. 745
In a closely watched case with potential impacts across a broad swath of the electric energy industry, on January 25, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the D.C. Circuit's May 2014 ruling in EPSA v. FERC and instead upheld the...
FERC Clarifies Scope of Proposed RTO and ISO Disclosure Requirements
On December 8, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") Office of Enforcement held a technical conference respecting FERC's recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NOPR") on Connected Entity Data. As discussed in an earlier post , if adopted, the NOPR...
Monthly Futures Exchange Issuance Report: November 2015
November's Highlight In November there were a significant number of disciplinary actions across the exchanges related to pre-arranged trading, including the execution of block trades. The exchanges clearly continue to focus on these types of violations and market participants should...
What Constitutes a Reasonable and Prudent Operator?
The English Commercial Court interprets the definition of the standard of a "Reasonable and Prudent Operator" in the context of a dispute relating to long term gas sales agreements The phrase "reasonable and prudent operator" is frequently used in commercial...
Monthly Futures Exchange Issuance Report: October 2015
October's Highlight October saw the first criminal conviction pursuant to Section 4c(a) for spoofing. A jury concluded that for approximately three months, an individual used a computer algorithm to place orders he did not intend to execute for the purpose...
FERC Proposes To Expand Classes Of Information Collected From Participants In RTO And ISO Markets
On September 17, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") issued a notice of proposed rulemaking ("NOPR") proposing to significantly expand the information that entities would be required to disclose in order to participate in the wholesale markets administered by...
Monthly Futures Exchange Issuance Report: August 2015
August's Highlight This past month, the NYMEX Business Conduct Committee ("Panel") entered into a settlement with an entity to resolve alleged violations of Exchange Rule 526- Block Trades and two Market Regulation Advisory Notices, RA1326-4 and RA-1327-4, related to pre-hedging...
BP Initial Decision: The Significance of Change
On August 13, 2015, the administrative law judge ("ALJ") assigned to hear evidence in BP America Inc. et. Al (Docket No. IN13-15) issued an Initial Decision in which she found that BP America Inc., and certain of its affiliates (collectively...
BP Initial Decision Adopts FERC Staff's Positions
Seven years after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC" or the "Commission") first opened an investigation into the trading practices of BP America Inc. and certain of its affiliates (collectively "BP"), on August, 13, 2015, Administrative Law Judge Carmen Cintron...
Scope of Trial De Novo Debated in Barclays Electricity Manipulation Case
After almost eight years since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commenced its investigation against Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays) and four of its traders, Scott Connelly, Daniel Brin, Karen Levine and Ryan Smith, for allegedly manipulating the California electricity markets...