Commissioner Mark C. Christie Statement
February 18, 2021
Docket No. EL16-92-004
Order: E-2
I write separately to reiterate that the issues attendant to the intersection of state public policies and RTO/ISO markets need to be considered comprehensively in a general proceeding in which all interested groups and entities – including, of course, the states – can offer their views, instead of this continuing trench warfare over “MOPR-type” issues in individual cases in which only a tiny fraction of the interested universe can participate.
Issues like those involved in today’s proceeding are complicated, involving competing interests and competing values and the obvious tension between FERC’s duty to ensure just and reasonable – and not unduly discriminatory or preferential – wholesale rates and the states’ authority over retail rates and their own public policies. Today’s proceeding illustrates the complexity. While the issues involved in today’s order have been described as an example of the alleged misuse by this Commission of buyer-side mitigation rules,[1] others may describe them as an effort to prevent retail subsidies paid to certain Demand Response (DR) providers from unfairly impacting prices in NYISO’s Installed Capacity (ICAP) market, which are under FERC jurisdiction.
Since other retail consumers ultimately pay, directly or indirectly, for subsidies directed to the few, whether this state policy actually saves all retail consumers in New York money or provides other benefits is a debate for elected policy-makers – and the voters – in the State of New York. I also note that the NYISO is a single-state ISO and I have been able to locate no evidence in the record that the New York policies at issue in today’s order are causing cost-shifting onto consumers in other states. If consumers in other states were disadvantaged, I may well view this matter differently, but on this record – and with the desire to see this entire issue teed up for review and consideration – I concur.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] N.Y. Pub. Serv. Comm’n v. N.Y. Indep. Sys. Operator, Inc., 173 FERC ¶ 61,022 (2020) (Glick, Comm’r, dissenting at PP 1-4 and passim).