Commissioner Richard Glick Statement
January 30, 2019
Docket Nos. ER18-1972-000 , ER18-2068-000
Although I support today’s orders denying PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.’s waiver requests,1
I want to call attention to the issue of market participants that engage in market manipulation or fraud, but are then able to return to the market, unencumbered by their past behavior. Market manipulation causes considerable harm by, among other things, distorting prices and interfering with market operations—the costs of which are ultimately borne by consumers. In recent years, it appears that there have been several instances in which the Commission has addressed manipulative behavior by individual traders at particular companies, only to subsequently discover that those same traders have moved to new companies and engaged in similarly manipulative conduct.
In the Energy Policy Act of 2005,2
Congress vested the Commission with the responsibility to protect consumers from attempts to manipulate wholesale electricity markets and to punish entities that succeed in doing so. To fulfill that mandate, the Commission must investigate what can be done to preclude recidivist manipulators from continuing to participate in Commission-jurisdictional markets. That investigation should consider the full extent of our existing authority under the Federal Power Act and whether any legislative action is needed to ensure that the Commission has the authority to preclude these individuals from continued participation in wholesale electricity markets. I hope that this is an issue we can address in the months ahead.