Ari Peskoe

Petitioners filed in August. FERC in January. Intervenors and amici in February. Today is petitioners' replies. Do you want me to email you all of the filed briefs so far?

a close up of a stuffed monkey wearing a green shirt and a green jacket . ALT: a close up of a stuffed monkey wearing a green shirt and a green jacket .

Who's excited to read more briefs today about FERC Order No 1920?

The cost of datacenters is getting expensive. Therefore I will build them on the Moon. Where I'll also be building my satellites. That I'll be yeeting into Earth's orbit with a giant space catapult. Because I'm all about low cost.

I will never understand the fascination with coal. who are you, thomas the tank engine?

[Episode #269] – Trump's War on the Energy Transition | The Energy Transition Show Can the energy transition in the US survive President Trump’s attacks on it?

In Ep. 269, @aripeskoe.bsky.social rejoins us to review Trump’s attacks on the energy transition in the US and explore the legal options for defending it. Wind farms, solar farms, coal plants, regulations,Venezuela, UN climate bodies, oh my! xenetwork.org/ets/episodes...

I filed a brief for the Organization of PJM States (OPSI) in defense of FERC Order No 1920, which requires long-term regional transmission planning.

The brief emphasizes that protecting consumers requires coordinated fed-state action.

It's free!
statepowerproject.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

Trump admin’s must-run orders put broken-down coal plants in a bind Utilities are already paying to keep aging coal plants open under DOE emergency orders. New demands to revive nonfunctioning units add costs and legal…

The Trump admin’s push to force-run aging coal plants has entered a new phase: ordering two broken-down coal units in Indiana and Colorado that could take months and millions of dollars to bring back online to run under 90-day emergency declarations:
www.canarymedia.com/articles/fos...
#energysky

Good lord.

Challenges to DOE 202(c) Orders Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act empowers the Secretary of Energy to order “temporary connections” of generation and transmission in response to a war or an emergency that causes…

Do you wish you could spend New Years reading 6 newly filed briefs about federal/state responsibilities over resource adequacy?

Do you also want to learn why DOE's orders keeping coal plants open are very illegal?

OK, this is for you -
statepowerproject.org/challenges-t...

One of my most delightful academic experiences this semester was our reading seminar on infrastructure. Here were the ground rules:

1. we all read 12 of 15 books new to us
2. no laptops or phones
3. read widely bc of our polycrises

Reading books was just great. Here's what we read and reactions:

You underestimate the 1980s-era reach of the Cooperative Bank of Concord

Shiny plaque

Dilapidated bench

Market inefficiency? Outdated property right? Neglect?

A shiny plaque at my local library notes that this dilapidated reading bench is sponsored by a bank that was merged out of existence in 1988.

Wow. How'd these people get such a good deal? I wish my day care had cost only $20k per year.

Travis Kavulla Explains Why Electric Bills Shot Up Podcast Episode · Odd Lots · 12/01/2025 · 57m

Omg Travis Kavulla on odd lots!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Judge Lets FERC's $1B Market Manipulation Case Proceed - Law360 A North Carolina federal judge on Monday declined to block the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from imposing nearly $1 billion in enforcement penalties against an energy efficiency aggregator, sa...

My latest for @law360.bsky.social: A federal judge refused to block @ferc.gov’s $1B enforcement case against an #energysky efficiency aggregator, saying the company hasn’t shown that it violates their 7th Amendment rights to a jury trial. www.law360.com/articles/241...

BREAKING: FirstEnergy hit with $250 MILLION in fines for bribing politicians in the HB6 scandal. $180M goes back to customers starting in December. We're finally getting money back from the HB6 scandal! ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ https://bit.ly/47Qi8FV

This case is not an appropriate vehicle for upending economic regulation that is vital for our nation’s security and well-being.

Also, FERC plays a direct role in our economy that, among the multimember agencies, is matched only by the Federal Reserve Board. Prices set by FERC are essential inputs across the economy that directly affect the cost of living and doing business.

The Court has repeatedly characterized ratemaking power as “legislative.” Ratemaking commissions may therefore warrant separate consideration from agencies that wield “executive” authority.

In this case, the President argues that because FTC commissioners wield “executive” power, as the head of the Executive Branch he may remove commissioners from office at any time.

If the Court overturns Humphrey’s (as the President wants) or modifies it, the brief asks the Court specify that its decision does not reach the distinct history and tradition of ratemaking commissions.

Because history can inform the Court’s separation-of-powers analysis, Congress’s long-standing practice of creating bipartisan ratemaking commissions with for-cause removal protections supports the Constitutionality of Congress’s ratemaking model.

For-cause removal protections and other constraints on the hiring and firing of commissioners tie the exercise of Congress’s ratemaking power to a deliberative body that is designed to sustain stable policies.

That phrase is from the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 (ICA), which put railroads under federal regulation. Over the next 50 years, Congress created several ratemaking commissions to oversee other capital-intensive networked industries. Each time, Congress used the ICA as a model.

The case is about whether the President may fire an FTC Commissioner. The 1914 law creating the FTC says commissioners can be fired for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, of malfeasance in office,” terms of art that prevent the President from removing commissioners from office.

I filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of 11 former FERC Commissioners.

The brief seeks to preserve Congress's authority to maintain bipartisan ratemaking commissions and prevent direct Presidential control of ratemaking.

www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

Summary below:

GA PSC 2 Dem Alicia Johnson projected to win by Decision Desk

GA PSC 3 Dem Peter Hubbard projected to win by Decision Desk

WHOA. Via @decisiondeskhq.bsky.social, it looks like Democrats just flipped BOTH *statewide* Public Service Commissioner seats in Georgia.

That seems...significant.

Setting a high bar!

Kentucky regulators grant LG&E/KU permission to build power plants for future data centers State regulators are allowing Kentucky’s largest power companies to spend $3 billion on two new gas power plants, which LG&E/KU say are needed for future data centers.

State regulators are allowing Kentucky’s largest power companies to spend $3 billion on two new gas power plants, which LG&E/KU say are needed for future data centers. www.lpm.org/news/2025-10...

Cheating with an LLM is the easiest thing in the world for a student to do, but it creates a massive, laborious headache for a prof, if you intend to take it seriously. There’s meetings, emails, discussions, moral dilemmas. It’s just incredibly burdensome, on top of everything else right now.