The Biden administration will take over the executive branch on Jan. 20, but the new president won't have a Democratic majority on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission until June 30 after the Senate approved a bipartisan pair of Trump administration nominees this week. Kate Konschnik told Roll Call that FERC works relatively well across party lines without monumental shifts from one administration to the next.

A historic discussion on carbon pricing broke previous attendance records for a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission technical conference, but Utility Dive reported that the conference was missing key constituencies, including states, female voices, and voices of color.

Kate Konschnik was among 30 energy sector experts who spoke during a virtual Federal Energy Regulatory Commission conference on carbon pricing in regional wholesale power markets. Konschnik told the commission that the Federal Power Act "poses no fundamental obstacle to markets incorporating state carbon pricing," according to a story by Energywire.

Eight former FERC commissioners submitted a “friend of the court” brief to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to offer their energy expertise to the Court in a challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s latest power sector carbon rule. The brief was written and filed by Kate Konschnik.

A new policy brief from the Nicholas Institute says a large Southeast power market would be the best hope for creating greater competition, lowering prices and encouraging cleaner energy production as the Carolinas look for alternative regulatory structures for their power utilities, reports the Charlotte Business Journal.

Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and New York University's Institute for Policy Integrity co-hosted a conference on March 3 that focused on different approaches for carbon pricing in wholesale energy markets.

Jennifer Chen spoke to the Energy Evolution podcast about why a recent order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will likely worsen the oversupply of gas generation capacity in the PJM Interconnection.

Jennifer Chen spoke to Law360 about potential legal challenges to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order stating that state-subsidized power producers must hit a price floor to participate in electricity capacity auctions run by PJM Interconnection.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order yesterday directing the PJM Interconnection to impose a minimum price on resource offers into its capacity auction for resources that receive state policy support. Jennifer Chen analyzes the issue and its potential impacts on energy consumers and clean energy production.

Nicholas Institute Senior Counsel Jennifer Chen was recently invited to speak before the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Her remarks focused on how regional energy markets could help cut greenhouse gas emissions while providing consumer savings and economic opportunities to all states—regardless of individual state climate ambitions.

PJM is seeking to  procure more reserves at higher prices by augmenting its operating reserve demand curve. Because the reserve and energy markets interact, energy prices will increase too, writes Nicholas Institute Senior Counsel Jennifer Chen for RTO Insider.

Stakeholders in PJM may decide on Thursday to initiate a process to study and potentially price CO₂ emissions in its energy market. Such a process would provide a forum for much needed detailed discussion and analysis on what could be a critical link between CO₂ emissions policies and efficient markets, writes Jennifer Chen, senior counsel at Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, in Greentech Media.

The Gulf Coast Power Association’s annual Spring Conference on April 16-17 began the day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear challenges to Illinois’ and New York’s zero-emission credit programs. The court’s decision was a stark reminder that individual states are driving changes to the country’s electric generation mix, often to the frustration of the grid operators charged with operating competitive, economically efficient markets, reports RTO Insider.

The International Energy Agency recently reported strong greenhouse gas growth from energy production in 2018, with an emerging fleet of Asian coal-fired power plants leading the way. 

A new article in Law360 discusses how Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s plan to seek bankruptcy protection to address crippling liabilities for California wildfires should ring alarm bells for utilities, regulators and lawmakers in other states and force them to examine whether the current utility business model can accommodate climate change-related risks to energy infrastructure, policy experts say.