NEM will hold its Winter Executive Committee and Policy Development Meeting on January 17 and 18, 2008, at the South Carolina Research Authority in Charleston, South Carolina for a third time. Please register at this hotlink. Hotel accommodations have been arranged at the rate of $109 per night at the Hilton Garden Inn, Charleston Airport, 5265 International Blvd., North Charleston, SC 29418. Please call (843) 308-9330 to make your reservations. An agenda for the meeting is available at this hotlink.

NEM booked the new Embassy Suites Hotel Washington D.C. Convention Center for the Annual Spring Membership Meeting and Restructuring Conference on April 29 and 30, 2008. Hotel accommodations have also been arranged at this facility located at 900 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. NEM has secured preferred hotel rates of $259.00 per night. Please call (202) 739-2001 to make your reservations.

Please call headquarters for sponsorship opportunities for the Spring Event as advertisements are currently being developed. Your attendance, participation and sponsorship of these events are needed and would be greatly appreciated as would your input on speaker invitations and discussion topics.

The President signed HR6, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The legislation increases fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It also increases the renewable fuels standard to 9 billion gallons in 2008, progessively increasing to 36 billion gallons by 2022. The legislation sets national efficiency standards for light bulbs, increasing energy efficiency standards by thirty percent and effectively phasing out most common incandescent bulbs by 2012-14. Notable omissions from the final legislation include renewable electric standards as well as oil and gas tax credit repeals. The full text of HR6 is available on the NEM Website.

FERC approved a final rule that will require certain natural gas market participants to annually report, beginning May 1, 2009, on their wholesale, physical natural gas transactions. FERC adopted the rule to establish the size of physical gas markets, indexed and fixed price transactions, and to identify major traders.

The rule establishes new Form 522 to be used, "for any buyer or seller of more than 2.2 million mmBtus of physical natural gas each year to report aggregate volumes of relevant transactions." Reporting entities will disclose the total volume of sales and purchases, the volumes of fixed price transactions, the volume of transactions that were reportable to price index publishers, whether the entity sells gas under a blanket sales certificate, and whether it reports transactions to a price index publisher. FERC indicated certain exemptions to the reporting requirement: "A market participant operating under blanket sales certificate authority, buying less than 2.2 million mmBtus and selling less than 2.2 million mmBtus must file Form No. 552 for identification and certain reporting purposes but will not be required to report aggregate volumes of relevant transactions. A market participant buying less than 2.2 million mmBtus and selling less than 2.2 million mmBtus and that does not operate under blanket sales certificate authority does not have to file the form." The full text of FERC's Press Release is available on the NEM Website.

A group of 41 customer organizations petitioned FERC to expand its ongoing inquiry into wholesale competition in organized electric markets. The petitioners urge FERC to, "investigate the justness and reasonableness of wholesale power prices charged in RTO-run centralized markets." The petitioners allege that certain generators are earning "supra-competitive" returns and that consumers located in regions where these returns are earned are paying steadily higher rates than in regulated markets. The petitioners argue that critical conditions - absence of market power, optimized resource mix, absence of impediments to long term contracting in a LMP environment and price responsive demand - are lacking in RTO-run organized markets necessary to produce just and reasonable rates. The full text of the Customer Petition is available on the NEM Website.

FERC reviewed an appeal by three retail power marketers regarding a determination made by NERC that they were properly registered as load serving entities (LSEs) by ReliabilityFirst Corporation (a Regional Entity) and therefore subject to compliance with LSE Reliability Standards. The marketers had agreed to their registration as purchasing-selling entities, but not to their registration as LSEs. The registry criteria for entities to be deemed LSEs is: 1) peak load greater than 25MW; and 2) to be directly connected to the Bulk Power System. The marketers noted they do not own or operate any physical assets and therefore do not satisfy the criteria. Additionally, other Regional Entities besides ReliabilityFirst affirmatively declined to register the marketers as LSEs.

In its review, FERC reversed NERC's reliability determination for the retail marketers. FERC found that "NERC's determinations were not supported by the record or its own registry criteria," that the registry criteria was inconsistently applied, and that NERC had not adequately identified reliability standards that would be applicable to the retail marketers. However, FERC was concerned about a potential reliability gap in the bulk power system. Accordingly, NERC is directed to file a plan within 75 days of FERC's order on how to develop a uniform approach for the application of appropriate reliability standards to retail marketers. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.