This week, FERC submitted its annual financial report to the US Congress. Although part of the regular slate of voluminous reports sent up to Capitol Hill each year, FERC’s report often includes certain nuggets of information useful to the regulated community.
Buried in the report this year was a reminder that FERC—for the first time—has adjusted the civil monetary penalties that it may administer in response to violations of its rules.
As of July 16, 2016, the following civil monetary penalties apply:
- $1,193,970 per violation, per day for violations of any provision of Part II of the Federal Power Act (FPA) or FERC’s regulations and orders thereunder, including the electric market manipulation provisions of the FPA and mandatory reliability standards.
- $1,193,970 per violation, per day for violations of the Natural Gas Act or FERC’s implementing regulations and orders thereunder, including the natural gas market manipulation provisions.
- $1,193,970 per violation, per day for violations of the Natural Gas Policy Act or FERC’s implementing regulations and orders thereunder.
FERC’s various organic statutes contain a variety of other miscellaneous civil penalty provisions as well, all of which were raised.
These adjustments were formally implemented through Order No. 826 in response to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015 and were the first modifications to the significant civil penalty authority given to FERC in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Under the law, FERC will be required to update its monetary penalty amounts every January 15.