CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Do not expect to see meaningful oversight anytime soon from FERC. See See No Evil: FERC Refuses to Examine Gaming of RTO/ISO Electricity Spot Markets .

If the past is any guide, FERC will throw a cloak of secrecy over who was making the bogus transactions, how much market prices were inflated, how much consumers had to pay, and how much was made by those who engaged in the transactions. After several years there will be a settlement in which sellers admit no wrongdoing, blame former "rogue" traders who violated their company rules against market manipulation, pay fines that amount to chump change in relation to what was overcharged, and the evidence will be sealed.

Indeed, after years of litigation and an ALJ decision finding that Enron owed $1.3 Billion due to market manipulation, FERC recently vacated the administrative decision as moot preventing it from being relied upon in related litigation. A protest of FERC's action is now underway.

The NYISO is an electric company organized under New York law and is required to operate in the public interest. The New York PSC and the legislature can and should exercise more oversight of the performance of the NYISO. The State should consider alternative structures that provide greater accountability to the public interest and the interests of consumers, beginning with appointment of NYISO Board Members by the Governor, as California did after manipulation of the CAISO markets.

The State should also revisit the policies of the PSC that have resulted in too little bilateral contracting and too much reliance upon purchases in the flawed NYISO day-ahead and real time "convenience store" spot markets to meet needs of consumers that are predictable far in advance.

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