The New York Public Service Commission (“PSC”) appears to be creating a new Office of Investigations and Enforcement (“OIE”) and has posted a job listing for a Director of OIE (“Director”) who would report to the CEO of the Department of Public Service (“DPS”), as well as the Chairman of the PSC. The Director would be tasked with managing the OIE’s efforts in investigating and enforcing the regulations promulgated pursuant to §25 and §25-a of…

On August 21, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed a new rule which would replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (“CPP”) and establish new emissions guidelines for states to address greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions from electric-generating power plants. As background, the CPP was stayed by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in February of 2016 before the rule ever went into effect. More recently, in October 2017, the EPA announced its intention to…

Recently, Phillips Lytle’s own Dennis Elsenbeck made an appearance on Spectrum News’ Capital Tonight program with host Liz Benjamin to discuss the energy landscape in New York and the economic impact of energy-related policy decisions. As the State legislative calendar year comes to a close, the conversation centered around how energy policy should be focused on meeting market demands so that it aligns with the current economic goals to drive development. As the energy industry…

New York State (“NYS” or “State”) is launching a second round of request for proposals (“RFPs”) for large-scale renewable projects. According to NYS Energy Research and Development Authority (“NYSERDA”), the State is seeking to accelerate progress to achieve the lofty goals set in the Clean Energy Standard initiative that went into effect in August of 2016. As we have previously reported, the Clean Energy Standard mandates that renewable energy supply 50 percent of the…

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2019 budget originally proposed the elimination of an important sales tax exemption that allows certain customers of Energy Service Companies (“ESCOs”) to receive electric and gas supply without paying transmission and distribution sales tax. Currently, nonresidential default utility customers pay sales tax on both commodity and delivery, while nonresidential ESCO customers pay sales tax only on commodity. The sales tax exemption is designed to incentivize consumer choice and allows ESCOs to…

Following a series of extensions, the New York Public Service Commission (“Commission”) has once again extended the deadline for Community Distributed Generation (“CDG”) and on-site mass market distributed generation (“DG”) providers to file a completed registration package in conformance with the Uniform Business Practices for Distributed Energy Suppliers (“UBP-DERS”). The Commission extended the deadline to allow Department of Public Service Staff to modify the Standard Customer Disclosure Statements based on feedback received from stakeholders. With this extension,…

The Public Service Commission’s (“PSC” or “Commission”) recently enacted Uniform Business Practices for Distributed Energy Resource Suppliers (“UBP-DERS”) Order establishes multiple tiers of regulatory oversight based on the characteristics of a DER provider’s business model. For entities engaged in residential sales of community distributed generation (“CDG”) subscriptions and on-site mass market distributed generation (“DG”) installations, the UBP-DERS requires, among other things, registration with the PSC, compliance with marketing and advertising standards, inclusion of specified terms and…