This spring, No Coal No Gas once again organized a comment period in response to regional grid operator ISO-NE’s Forward Capacity Auction results, which granted nearly $350 million to fossil fuel peaker plants. These payments—which are part of ratepayer electric bills—are a clear violation of ISO-NE’s mandate to “protect the health of the region’s economy and the well-being of its people by ensuring the constant availability of competitively-priced wholesale electricity – today and for future generations.”
In response, we engaged in a public comment period intervening against approval of these results by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Here is a timeline of our public comment process and the drama unfolding in the FERC docket:
Prior to February 2024: Past NCNG comment periods opposing the results of FCA 15, FCA 16, and FCA 17
02/21/2024 03:54:47 PM: ISO files the FCA 18 results to FERC docket ER24-1290-000
03/26/2024 02:35:07 PM: NCNG submits a motion to intervene in the docket.
From 3/26 to 4/15: No Coal No Gas organizes a public comment campaign inviting individuals and groups to sign our collective campaign comment and submit their own individual filings to FERC. About 30 individuals/groups submitted their own filings focusing on these topics. You can read their compiled comments here.
04/08/2024 11:51:15 PM: NCNG submits a collective comment focusing on the FCA’s result’s violations of the ISO-NE tariff. The statement also highlights the need to prioritize conservation demand response over the continued funding of fossil fuels. While 4191 people signed the comment (including about 1000 from New England), we were unable to include the full list of signers because our computers were unable to process that many signatures.
04/15/2024 09:48:13 PM: NCNG files an amended version of the collective comment that does include all 4191 signatures.
05/06/2024: NCNG submits a recap to the FERC Office of Public Participation (OPP) summarizing our efforts and detailing issues we faced around the submission process. It also includes a question about when we can expect to hear back from ISO-NE.
05/07/2024 10:41:36 AM ISO submits Motion to Answer and Answer to our comments. This answer is nearly identical to last year’s, and argues that our comments were “outside the scope” of the proceedings.
05/16/2024 12:34:08 PM NCNG submits a Motion to Answer and Answer to ISO-NE’s Motion to Answer and Answer. Our answer argues that our comments were in fact within the scope of the docket, as they explicitly addressed ISO-NE’s failure to comply with its tariff. We also argued that ISO-NE’s answer was lazy, inaccurate, and a bad-faith attempt to usurp FERC’s authority and limit our participation in the proceedings. We also attached an annotated copy of ISO-NE’s Answer that highlighted its similarity to last year’s, as well as documentation of each instance that our comments had referenced the tariff.
06/18/2024: FERC issues its ruling accepting the FCA results. The ruling cites our comments extensively and accurately summarizes many of our arguments. However, FERC also rules that our comments are “outside the scope” of the proceedings and that only Tariff Section III.13 is relevant to its approval of the FCA results. The ruling also states that “broader concerns about the FCM design are more appropriately raised in the stakeholder process.”
06/18/2024: When approached for comment by a reporter at RTO Insider, NCNG releases the following statement on the FERC results:
“In response to our substantive comments on the ways that ISO New England’s FCA 18 results violate ISO-NE’s own Tariff, FERC asserts that only tariff section III.13 – on technicalities of auction procedures – is relevant. FERC cordoned off all other violations of ISO-NE’s governing document that we raised in connection to the FCA 18 results as “outside the scope” of the docket. FERC further suggests that “the stakeholder process” is the appropriate place to raise these concerns. Yet NEPOOL, the official stakeholder group, is a notoriously opaque and inaccessible members-only body. It is closed both to journalists and to the ratepaying public who fund NEPOOL and ISO-NE. Even within NEPOOL, the votes of ratepayer and other “end user” groups are capped at 16.7% of the total. Referring us to a body to which we are unlikely to gain access, and which explicitly limits public input and agency, is unfortunately typical of this system—a system designed to prevent meaningful participation. FERC’s response suggests that New England’s millions of residential ratepayers should have no effective way to participate in decisions about the billions of dollars taken from their utility bills every year to manage the grid and fund NEPOOL. If the stakeholder process is the appropriate venue for comment, then we’ll need to create a stakeholder process that doesn’t lock us out.”
06/21/2024: No Coal No Gas receives a response to our letter from the OPP and encouragement to keep in touch with them about future comments and questions.
June 2024 onward: No Coal No Gas continues to take action targeting NEPOOL and ISO-NE procedures and policies regarding the continued funding of fossil fuels.
While this comment period was unsuccessful in canceling the FCA 18 results, it was effective in several other ways! First, this year’s ruling demonstrated the most comprehensive overview of our comments and arguments - evidence that FERC is taking us seriously even when ISO-NE is not! The arguments this year also demonstrated ISO-NE’s hypocrisy in its determination to pick and choose which sections of its tariff are relevant, as well as NEPOOL’s utter inadequacy as the “appropriate stakeholder process.”
Most of all, this comment period was a success community-organizing wise! The 28 individuals who submitted their own comments each did their own research and writing and worked to make each comment unique and focused on a specific topic - this is a big step up from the fairly-similar comments we’ve submitted in the past! The over 4000 signatures we collected also represents the largest group of everyday ratepayers engaged in ISO-NE proceedings to date, including 1000 from the New England Region.
We hope that the comment process was an opportunity for everyone who participated to learn something new about ISO-NE, FERC bureaucracy, and the need for a new grid management system! Many thanks to everyone who participated, and we look forward to stirring up more docket drama with you in the near future!
