Speaking Energy

2023 saw two megadeals in the oil & gas industry that have led to calls from environmental interest groups for the FTC to intervene despite a lack of obvious antitrust issues. Whether the FTC will sue to block the deals remains to be seen.

On December 6, 2023, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the Promoting Innovation in Pipeline Efficiency and Safety Act of 2023 (PIPES or the Bill)¹ to reauthorize the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) safety programs for the next four years. The bipartisan legislation was introduced on November 29, 2023, with the goal of striking the correct balance between safe energy resource transportation and ecologically beneficial U.S. manufacturing. The Bill would mandate that guidelines be created to improve operations, recruit more safety experts, and enhance procedures to prevent damage from excavation. The Bill funds PHMSA pipeline safety initiatives with $1.1 billion spread over four years. Among the important clauses of the Bill are the following:

On October 19, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to submit new or modified Reliability Standards that address the impacts of inverter-based resources (IBRs) on the reliable operation of the Bulk-Power System¹ to “protect the grid as the nation makes the transition to expanded use of clean energy technologies.”² The Final Rule also addresses certain IBRs connected to the distribution system that in the aggregate have a material impact on the Bulk-Power System (IBR-DERs).³ Broadly speaking, IBRs are “power electronic devices [used] to change the direct current power produced by generators into alternating current power that is then transmitted on the bulk electric system,”⁴ and they are common to solar, wind, battery storage and fuel cell facilities, among others. Because such resources “respond to grid disturbances differently from traditional [synchronous] generation resources such as hydropower, nuclear, coal or natural gas plants,” FERC determined that they require different Reliability Standards “to ensure IBRs support reliability in the same manner as traditional generation resources.”⁵ We previously covered other FERC actions to address the potential impact of such resources here.

On October 23, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order that will permit Trailblazer Pipeline Company LLC (Trailblazer) to convert its approximately 400-mile-long natural gas pipeline system to carbon dioxide (CO₂) transportation. Trailblazer intends to use the pipeline, which originally entered service in the 1980s to bring natural gas from constrained Rocky Mountain supply basins in Wyoming across Colorado and into Nebraska, to transport CO₂from ethanol plants and other emissions sources in Nebraska and Colorado to Wyoming for permanent sequestration in geologic formations (the Trailblazer Conversion Project). FERC has no jurisdiction over the siting, construction, or operation of CO₂pipelines. However, Trailblazer required FERC’s authorization under section 7(b) of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) before it could “abandon” natural gas service on its pipeline facilities. The order also authorized Rockies Express Pipeline LLC (Rockies Express or REX) under NGA section 7(c) to construct additional facilities and lease to Trailblazer existing capacity that will be used to continue service to Trailblazer’s natural gas transportation customers. Trailblazer also intends to contract for capacity on Tallgrass Interstate Gas Transmission, LLC (TIGT) to serve its firm customers. All three pipelines are operated by a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy Partners.

On October 25, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order¹ that extended the deadline for electric transmission providers to comply with its Order No. 2023, “Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements” (the Final Rule²). The new compliance filing deadline is Wednesday, April 3, 2024, or 210 calendar days from the Final Rule’s publication in the Federal Register on September 6, 2023. The previous deadline had been December 5, 2023, or 90 days from the publication date. The revised deadline applies to “all transmission providers, except for those with wholesale distribution access tariffs,” whose compliance filings are now due “within 90 calendar days of the date on which their relevant regional transmission organization or independent systems operator submits its compliance filing.”³ FERC clarified that the Extension Order “does not change or modify any other determination or other deadlines established by Order No. 2023, including the deadline for eligibility for interconnection customers to opt to proceed with a transitional serial study (for those interconnection customers tendered a facilities study agreement) or transitional cluster study (for those interconnection customers assigned a queue position) or to withdraw their interconnection requests without penalty (i.e., 30 calendar days after the transmission provider submits its initial compliance filing).”⁴

On September 6, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC or the “Commission”) Order No. 2023, “Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements” (the “Final Rule”), was published in the Federal Register. The Final Rule had been issued by FERC on July 28, 2023, and requests for rehearing and clarification have already been filed with the agency by numerous transmission owners, generation developers, trade associations and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators affected by the Final Rule. Akin hosted a webinar on the Final Rule on August 3, 2023, providing analysis on the Final Rule’s requirements to (1) increase how quickly requests in the interconnection queue are processed, (2) replace the previous “first-come, first-served” process with a “first-ready, first-served” cluster study process and (3) incorporate technological advancements in generation and transmission into the interconnection process. The published version of the Final Rule establishes an effective date for Order No. 2023 of November 6, 2023. 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the “Commission”) recently issued Order Nos. 896 and 897 (collectively, the “Reliability Orders”),¹ which are two final rules designed to bolster electric grid reliability during extreme heat and cold weather events that “may cause unacceptable risk to life and economic harm,” especially during periods of unexpectedly high demand on the Bulk-Power System.²