Law360 Publishes Akin Gump Article on FERC’s Opportunity to Clarify Its One-Mile Rule

Law360 has published the article “An Opportunity For FERC To Clarify The 1-Mile Rule,” written by Shawn Whites, a paralegal at Akin Gump, and Chip Cannon, co-chair of the firm’s energy regulation, markets and enforcement practice. The article discusses a case involving Beaver Creek Wind II LLC and Beaver Creek Wind III LLC’s methodology used to calculate “the distance between wind projects consisting of multiple pieces of geographically dispersed electric generating equipment (i.e., wind turbines) for the purposes of applying the one-mile rule under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA).”

With the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) poised to have a quorum soon once again, Cannon and Whites write that the case provides the new FERC commissioners with an opportunity “to establish a preferred methodology, if any, for measuring one mile for purposes of PURPA.” The decision, they say, “could have immediate impacts for renewable energy project developers, particularly those developing wind projects, as they perform due diligence on property selection and equipment siting when planning multiple projects.”

Cannon and Whites conclude that any clarification provided by FERC “will provide increased regulatory certainty for developers of projects hoping to achieve [qualifying small power production facilities] status.”

To read the full article, please click here.