Speaking Energy

(Houston) – Akin Gump is pleased to announce it has released its “2020 Energy Year in Review,” which examines the current state of the global energy market and highlights the energy matters with which the firm was involved last year across the following areas:

• Mergers, Acquisitions & Strategic Transactions
• Capital Markets
• Financing
• Project Development
• Financial Restructuring
• Energy Litigation.

On August 6, 2020, the D.C. Public Service Commission (PSC) amended the D.C. Municipal Regulations to allow “net energy metering (‘NEM’) systems for individual behind-the-meter generators to go beyond 100 percent of the customer’s historical usage and customer payment for excess generation.”¹ Specifically, effective upon publication of the Order in the D.C. Register, eligible NEM “customer-generators”² in D.C. “can increase the generation threshold by 20% annually, starting in 2020 until the generation threshold reaches 200% in 2024.”³ Covered energy systems include those not larger than 1,000 kW powered by “renewable resources, cogeneration, fuel cells, or microturbines.”⁴ The change will allow eligible customer-generators to design and build larger behind-the-meter renewable energy systems (up to 1,000 kW) to help satisfy increases in demand for applications such as electric vehicle charging, as well as to increase their net metering compensation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC or “Commission”) Order No. 841, a 2018 rulemaking addressing electric storage resources. The purpose of Order no 841—discussed previously on Speaking Energy here and here—was to remove barriers to the participation of electric storage resources in the wholesale markets operated by regional transmission organizations and independent system operators (RTOs/ISOs). FERC required each RTO/ISO to revise its tariff to ensure, among other things, that storage resources can provide all of the energy, capacity and ancillary services they are capable of providing. 

On April 14, 2020, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Neil Chatterjee addressed FERC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic on FERC’s Open Access podcast. Chairman Chatterjee highlighted FERC’s ongoing focus on protecting the health and safety of FERC staff and those in the energy industry who are working to keep the lights on. He also summarized certain recent FERC actions to provide regulatory guidance and certainty to the energy industry on reliability and security matters during this challenging time.

Akin Gump provides details about the New York Stock Exchange approved and declared rule change temporarily waiving through June 30, 2020 certain shareholder approval requirements.

Akin Gump provides details on the New York Stock Exchange LLC (NYSE) proposed rule change to suspend until June 30, 2020, the application of the NYSE continued listing requirement with respect to global market capitalization.

Last month over 35,000 participants attended the Gastech 2019 Conference, the world’s largest gas and LNG conference, in Houston, Texas. Members of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP’s global energy and transactions team attended Gastech and wanted to share the following observations:

Globe Law & Business, in its new book Oil and Gas Sale and Purchase Agreements, has included several chapters written by Akin Gump lawyers. The chapters and their corresponding authors are as follows:

• “Conditions precedent and deferred completions,” by oil and gas partner John LaMaster
• “Oil and gas warranties,” by oil and gas counsel Caroline-Lucy Moran
• “Environmental provisions in upstream acquisitions and divestitures,” by environment and natural resources partner emeritus Paul Gutermann
• “Decommissioning,” by oil and gas counsel Nicholas Antonas and partner Marc Hammerson
• “Anti-corruption provisions,” by international trade counsel Nicole D’Avanzo and partner Tatman Savio
• Oil and gas boilerplate provisions,” by John LaMaster