Please save the date for NEM's Fall Leadership Roundtable. The meeting will take place October 28-29, 2008, and will be hosted by IDT Energy at their offices located at 520 Broad Street in Newark, New Jersey. NYPSC Chairman Garry Brown, NYPSC Commissioner Robert Curry, NJBPU Commissioner Nicholas Asselta, NJBPU Commissioner Frederick Butler and NYPSC Staff are confirmed to participate. Eric Matheson, Energy Advisor to Pennsylvania PUC Chairman Cawley, is confirmed to attend. Delaware State Senator Harris McDowell will also attend. Angelina LaRose, Office of Oil and Gas/Energy Information Administration, will also participate. A Revised Draft Agenda is available at this hotlink. Please register at this hotlink. Special room rates have been arranged at the Hampton Inn Suites River Walk Hotel in Harrison, NJ. Hotel accommodations at the preferred $119.00 rate are being coordinated by IDT. Please call (973) 438-4531 to arrange your hotel reservation.

NEM's Winter Executive Committee Meeting will be held at Infinite Energy/Intelligent Energy headquarters at 7001 SW 24th Avenue in Gainesville, Florida. The meeting will take place January 20-21, 2009. Please register at this hotlink. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center at 1714 SW 34th Street, Gainesville, Florida at a rate of $139 per night. Contact 352-371-3600 for reservations.

NEM's 12th Annual Global Energy Forum & Membership Meeting will be held April 28 & 29, 2009. The meeting will be held at the Embassy Suites Washington D.C. - Convention Center located at 900 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC. Please register at this hotlink. A block of rooms has been reserved for NEM members at the rate of $279 per night. Contact 202-719-1421 for reservations.

The National Energy Marketers Association (NEM) is pleased to announce that Metromedia Energy (MME) has been elected to NEM's Executive Committee. Metromedia Energy (MME) is one of the largest and most experienced marketers in the competitive energy industry. MME is an independent energy marketer and not affiliated with any utility or energy wholesaler. MME's mission is to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction for the lowest cost and save its customers unnecessarily high utility costs. Metromedia Energy (MME) serves over 20,000 commercial natural gas and power customers including many of the Fortune 500. MME provides service for its customers from coast to coast, however its primary focus is the Northeastern United States. Metromedia Energy (MME) will be represented within NEM by Jonathan Morris, Anthony Fornoratto, and Gordon Pozza.

In a series of issuances yesterday, FERC reformed certain elements of its enforcement program meant to provide improved guidance to the industry and facilitate compliance.

In Order 717 FERC revised its standards of conduct for natural gas and electric transmission providers removing certain provisions of Order No. 2004. The rules continue to integrate gas and electric standards. However, the energy affiliate concept and the corporate separation approach to prohibited transactions between transmission providers and their marketing arms have been eliminated. Order 717 adopts an employee functional approach used in Orders 497 and 889. This is intended to make the standards of conduct easier to comply with and enforce. The full text of Order 717 is available on the NEM Website.

FERC issued a Policy Statement on Compliance to provide additional guidance to the industry on effective compliance programs and factors that may mitigate or eliminate assessment of a civil penalty when a violation occurs. The Commission outlined four factors it will take into consideration in determining whether an effective compliance program was in place: 1) the role of senior management in fostering a strong compliance ethic within a company; 2) systematic and effective preventive measures; 3) prompt detection, cessation and reporting of the offense; and 4) remediation of the misconduct. FERC announced its policy, "is that if a company acts aggressively to adopt, foster, and maintain an effective corporate culture of compliance, and has in place rigorous procedures and processes that provide effective accountability for compliance, but a violation nonetheless occurs, the Commission may provide a significant reduction in, or even in some cases the elimination of, the civil penalty that otherwise would be imposed." The full text of the Policy Statement on Compliance is available on the NEM Website.

The final element of the enforcement reforms package is a revision of FERC rules to clarify the applicability of rules governing ex parte contacts and separation of functions in the context of non-public investigations.

FERC adopted a final rule on Wholesale Competion in Regions with Organized Electric Markets. In doing so, Chairman Kelliher reiterated again that, "Competition is national policy and it is FERC's duty to foster competition and adopt those policies that will improve the operation of wholesale power markets and benefit consumers." The rules require the RTOs/ISOs to implement measures to improve the participation of demand resources in the market, for example, permitting aggregators of retail demand response to bid the combined demand response directly into an organized market (unless prohibited by the laws/regulations of the relevant retail regulatory authority). The rules encourage long-term contracting by requiring RTOs/ISOs to dedicate a portion of their websites for market participants to post offers to buy or sell power on a long-term basis. The rules increase the independence of the market monitoring units (MMUs) of the RTOs/ISOs, while also enhancing information sharing by the MMUs. The RTOs/ISOs must also provide a form of effective direct access to their board of directors for customers and other stakeholders. The full text of the Final Rule will be posted on the NEM Website when made available electronically.

The Commission approved NERC's proposal to revise its Compliance Registry Criteria to provide that a distribution provider to whose system the electric loads in retail choice areas are connected will be registered as the LSE for all loads connected to its system.

NERC had previously decided to register three retail power marketers to comply with Reliability Standards applicable to LSEs. FERC subsequently reversed NERC's classification of retail power marketers, and NERC devised this alternative treatment to address a potential "reliability gap" that may result if retail power marketers are not registered as LSEs. FERC found that the classification of the distribution provider as the LSE for all loads to be appropriate in view of the fact that distribution providers have the infrastructure and access to information to permit compliance with applicable LSE reliability standards. Additionally, distribution providers provide the wires over which retail power marketers load is served. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.