NRRI presents a brand-new teleseminar:

Renewable Energy Pricing in State-Level Feed-In Tariffs:
Federal Law Limitations and Possible Solutions

Tuesday, March 23, 2010
2-3:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Featuring:

Scott Hempling, Executive Director, NRRI
Karlynn Cory, Renewable Financing Analysis Team Lead, National Renewable Energy Lab
Kevin Porter, Vice President and Principal, Exeter Associates
Matt Baker, Commissioner, Colorado Public Utilities Commission
Ed McNamara, Environmental Analyst/Staff Attorney, Vermont Public Service Board

Register Now

Feed-in tariffs (FiT) require retail utilities to buy electricity from renewable producers under standardized agreements that outline specific pricing, terms, and conditions. Standardization can simplify the purchase process, provide revenue certainty to generators, and reduce costs. State legislatures and utility commissions are considering these types of arrangements to attract more renewable-energy projects. Your state or utility may be one of them.

But before you decide whether feed-in tariffs make sense, get the facts about the possible legal issues you face, learn more about the potential impact of the federal law, and get details on the potential options for revising the federal statutes. You can do all this by registering today to attend the upcoming NRRI teleseminar “Renewable Energy Pricing in State-Level Feed-In Tariffs: Federal Law Limitations and Possible Solutions.”

Designing state-level feed-in tariffs requires care to avoid preemption by federal law. Because the transaction resulting from a feed-in tariff is a wholesale sale of electricity—from renewable seller to retail utility—it triggers one of two federal statutes: the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) or the Federal Power Act of 1935 (FPA). These statutes limit the discretion of state-level tariff designers, but they do not leave states without options.

If your state is considering feed-in tariffs, you won’t want to miss this teleseminar with a panel of experts who will help ease some of the legal uncertainties by explaining the federal limitations and the options for transcending them. Plus, you’ll learn how state and federal policymakers could interpret or modify existing law to remove or reduce these restrictions.

During this 90-minute information-packed session, you’ll find out how to enact FiT policies with the lowest possible administrative burden. And if the Federal Power Act applies, and administrative burden exists, we’ll help you better understand the options that states or utilities can propose to FERC to create non-preempted paths for FiT policy implementation.

First, Scott Hempling, Esq., Executive Director of NRRI, will provide the legal analysis set forth in a paper commissioned by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He then will lead a discussion on the subject with Karlynn Cory of NREL, Kevin Porter of Exeter Associates, Matt Baker from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, and Ed McNamara, Esq. from the Vermont Public Service Board.

Here’s just some of what you’ll learn during this intensive 90-minute session:

• The FiT policies that will be exempt from the Federal Power Act and why.
• How state-level FiT policies can be implemented under PURPA.
• The administrative requirements of state-level FiT policies that must comply with the FPA.
• The regulatory action that FERC can take to reduce administrative requirements (for small projects).
• How FERC’s creation of “safe harbors” would allow for the formation of state FiT policies for specific technologies, projects, or regions.
• Possible congressional law updates to account for the increased interest in state-level FiTs.

. . .  and much more!

PUC commissioners, consultants, FiT policy advocates, and federal and state policymakers can all benefit from this discussion. So gather your entire team around a speakerphone and together you can all take part in this fast-paced teleseminar. Best of all, you’ll be able to connect personally with the panelists when we open up the phone lines for live Q&A.

Seminar Leader

Scott Hempling, Esq. is the Executive Director of NRRI. He provides legal and policy advice to public- and private-sector clients involved in regulated industries. His research emphases include mergers and acquisitions, the introduction of competition into formerly monopolistic markets, corporate restructuring, ratemaking, utility investments in nonutility businesses, and state-federal jurisdictional issues. Mr. Hempling received a B.A. cum laude in (1) economics and political science and (2) music from Yale University. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. He has appeared numerous times before committees of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives; and before state legislative committees in Arkansas, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.

Distinguished Panel

Karlynn Cory is the Team Analysis Lead for renewable energy project finance at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Ms. Cory has more than 13 years of experience analyzing renewable energy policies and U.S. electricity markets. She has an in-depth understanding of investor requirements for renewable energy project financing, as well as experience identifying best practices for policies that can be used to encourage increased capital for renewables. Ms. Cory also has extensively evaluated renewable energy certificate (REC) markets for renewable portfolio standards and voluntary green power markets, and, more recently, has examined feed-in tariff policies in the U.S. and Europe in detail. While at the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, Ms. Cory helped design and implement a program that uses REC purchase and option contracts to assist in the financing of new renewables projects. She also led the development of a sales plan for the Trust’s $30+ million REC assets. She has an M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University.

Kevin Porter is a Vice President and Principal with Exeter Associates, a consulting firm based in Maryland. He has been active in renewable energy analysis and research since 1984. His scope of work and expertise includes the technical and economic status of renewable energy technologies, design and implementation of state and federal renewable energy policies, transmission access and pricing for renewable energy technologies, and electric power issues in general. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Lewis & Clark College and an M.A. in Economics from The American University.

Matt Baker was appointed to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in 2008. Prior to joining the Commission, he served as the Executive Director of Environment Colorado where he was the architect of Colorado’s Renewable Energy ballot initiative, Amendment 37. Commissioner Baker led efforts to double Colorado’s renewable energy goals, implement policies to greatly expand utility energy efficiency programs, and promote state goals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, he was a leader on state transportation policy initiatives, including the successful build-out of the Denver metro area’s light rail system. Before joining the Commission, Commissioner Baker served as Vice Chair of the Transit Alliance. He also served on the Colorado Pollution Prevention Partnership and was Vice Chair of the Interwest Energy Alliance. He has a B.A. from Penn State.

Ed McNamara is a staff attorney and environmental analyst at the Vermont Public Service Board. His primary areas of expertise include siting, energy efficiency, climate policy, and renewable energy policy. He served as staff lead in the development of Vermont's Feed-in Tariff program and assisted in the development of the FiT rates. He received a J.D. from Vermont Law School and an M.A. in Environmental Science and Policy from Clark University.