Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

 FERC will vote on whether to review its major December 2019 decision limiting the participation of subsidized clean energy in the 13-state PJM capacity market. Some of its states and renewable and nuclear energy companies have asked for rehearing of the decision, which established a price floor that would block subsidized wind, solar and nuclear plants from clearing long-term power auctions.

PJM has expressed concern that states with clean energy policies may withdraw from the capacity market if FERC does not reverse its decision, though a compliance filing from the grid operator earned high marks from renewable energy interests for devising an avenue for how some wind and solar projects could avoid the price floor.

If FERC’s Republican majority votes as expected to deny rehearing , it would allow critics of the decision to file court challenges at the D.C. Circuit and move the commission into consideration of PJM’s compliance proposal. FERC rehearing decisions usually take multiple months, and often years, and agency watchers say swift action on this docket likely means FERC is expediting consideration of the case. PJM had asked the commission to speed the process along so it can hold its long-delayed capacity auction by March of next near , though some states have raised coronavirus concerns about that timeline, saying their legislatures will not be able to withdraw from the market due to work disruptions by the virus.