Since this is the beginning of NEM’s 15th Year, we have made special plans to celebrate this milestone at our 15th Annual National Restructuring Conference in Washington, DC on April 24 and 25, 2012. The Conference will be held at the Embassy Suites DC Convention Center, 900 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC. The Agenda is available at this hotlink.

Public Service Commission Chairs, Commissioners and other elected and appointed officials from around the country have already started to confirm their participation. Your sponsorship and support would be very helpful to make this NEM Event the best ever.

Sponsorship opportunities for this event can be viewed online at this hotlink.

Early registration for the April event is available online at this hotlink.

NEM filed comments on the Commission's proposed interpretation of the term “actual delivery” under Section 742(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This Section of the Act gave CFTC jurisdiction over certain “retail commodity transactions,” subject to certain exceptions. NEM requested that the Commission clarify that the types of transactions which its retail energy marketer members typically enter into with residential and commercial customers, in which they contract with the consumer to provide physical energy supply (electricity or natural gas) for terms that regularly in the course of business contemplate delivery of the physical energy commodity in excess of 28 days, were not intended and should not be interpreted to constitute “retail commodity transactions” under the Act. NEM additionally requested that longer term fixed price contracts and the commercial hedging transactions necessary to fulfill their obligations to physically deliver natural gas and electricity that are clearly intended by the consumer for end use consumption in either their home or place of business qualify for the line of business, typical commercial transaction, commercial hedging and end use exceptions as codified by Dodd-Frank and interpreted in this and related rulemakings. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

Pursuant to its authority under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the FCC issued an order adopting restrictions on telemarketing "robocalls." FCC said the action is justified by levels of consumer frustration with the robocalls as well as its statutory charge to maximize consistency with FTC telemarketing rules. "First, we require prior express written consent for telemarketing robocalls to wireless numbers and residential lines. Second, we eliminate the “established business relationship” exemption as it previously applied to telemarketing robocalls to residential lines. Third, we require telemarketers to implement an automated, interactive opt-out mechanism for telemarketing robocalls, which would allow a consumer to opt out of receiving additional calls immediately during a robocall. Fourth, we require that the permissible three percent call abandonment rate be calculated for each calling campaign, so that telemarketers cannot shift more abandoned calls to certain campaigns, as is possible if calculation is made across multiple calling campaigns. Finally, we adopt an exemption to our TCPA rules for prerecorded health care-related calls to residential lines, which are already regulated by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act." Prerecorded messages that are nontelemarketing, informational calls are subject to different requirements. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.

Commissioner Moeller issued a series of questions related to the increasing interdependence of natural gas and electricity. Moeller points to the impacts on outages and reliability caused by the interdependence. Moeller raised the following specific questions for comment:

"Specifically, what role should the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have in overseeing better coordination? What duties, if any, should be delegated to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), or other entities?

To what extent should FERC defer to various regions of the country in addressing these challenges? Should FERC view organized electricity markets differently from bilateral electricity markets? If regional deference is given, what role should FERC play to assure that regional agreements are adhered to?

The expanded use of natural gas for electricity generation is likely to change flows on the natural gas pipeline system. Does FERC need to address this issue?

Within each day, electricity trading differs significantly from gas trading. Similarly, on a day-to-day basis, the various gas markets may not be open on the same days as the corresponding electricity market, especially over Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays. How should FERC help to harmonize these markets?

What will be the impact of the expected retirements of coal and oil-fired generation on the need for gas and electricity coordination?

To what extent should FERC consider modifying its existing Standards of Conduct with regulated utilities—either on an emergency basis or in a more fundamental manner—to assure greater coordination of these industries?

Will progress on this issue be faster if policies are addressed in several “baskets”, such as communication, operation, contracting, and planning/contingency analysis? If so, what are the appropriate “baskets”?"

Comments on the questions are due March 30, 2012. The full texts of Commissioner Moeller's Questions and Notice Requesting Comments are available on the NEM Website.