Remember all the hoo-hah over New Jersey's and Maryland's plans to provide incentives in order to get new generation built in their states?
As expected, PJM's incumbent generator PIGS cooked up a new way to stop new generation entries in New Jersey and Maryland, and the PJM cartel, of course, was right there in the thick of things, giggling behind hairy knuckles.
Worse yet, PJM's "independent" market monitor was scheming right along with them. Shame on you, Market Monitor!
Douglas Nazarian, Chairman of the Maryland PSC, is calling foul on the PJM cartel's secret scheming to the detriment of electric consumers in the state. In a recent letter to PJM, Nazarian roasts PJM's PIG.
"I write to express our Commission's profound disappointment and concern with the clandestine and exclusionary process that has led to the latest round of proposed changes to the Minimum Offer Price Rule (the "MOPR"). Although we have and will raise serious objections to the proposal itself, those are for another time. At this point, because the process that begat the
new proposal was fatally and unfairly flawed, PJM should bring the fast-track "educational" process to an immediate stop and hold an open and transparent stakeholder discussion before proceeding further.
We were not shocked to learn that certain stakeholders would like to revise the MOPR further. We were shocked, however, to learn after the fact that PJM and the Independent Market Monitor participated in, and that PJM facilitated, a secret and exclusionary negotiation to devise a new set of MOPR revisions. PJM's own slides state that the discussions were initiated by suppliers and public power interests, but that P JM and the IMM were invited, and that selected other stakeholders were included and provided an opportunity 'to represent their unique interests." By PJM's own reckoning, four of its five sectors were included in the discussion - put another way, one of PJM's stakeholder sectors, the sector that includes Consumer Advocates, was actively excluded. And although we are not official stakeholders, State regulators -the parties most deeply interested in the terms of the MOPR and at whom these proposed changes are aimed - were excluded as well. So in spite of our well-known views on the MOPR, our
"unique" and public interests were, by design, never heard or considered.
Indeed, we and the Consumer Advocates and the few others not at the table learned of the discussions only when PJM Staff began rolling out (to great fanfare in the trade press) a fully formed proposal, using PJM's slide template, as part of a PJM-led "education process" that will fast-track this significant and targeted fait accompli from revelation to FERC filing in less than two months.
It may well be that we would never have reached
agreement with others on changes to the MOPR, but that is beside the point: these negotiations were held behind closed doors, with PJM's blessing and assistance (if not outright leadership), specifically for the purpose of revising the MOPR to the detriment of our State's long-term reliability needs. And the proposed changes are now being represented to the world, and will shortly be characterized to the FERC, as a PJM-endorsed proposal, despite the fact that the parties being targeted were affirmatively disinvited from the process.
PJM claims not to make policy. This time, however, PJM picked a policy winner at the beginning of the conversation, perhaps to try and preempt or moot the appeal to last year's changes that remains pending. This time, PJM excluded altogether the parties with the most at stake.
And this time, despite these shortcuts, PJM is visibly leading a forced, double-time march to the FERC on
behalf of a favored group of stakeholders, all so that the new rules can be in place for the May 2013 RPM auction."
Gosh, why does Nazarian sound so ticked off? Doesn't he already know that PJM is a self-interested industry cartel?
"Our experience with PJM since 2007 had led us to expect better."
Ooops, maybe not. Well, in that case, welcome to the real world that the consumers you serve have been living in for the past five years, Chairman Nazarian!
"Issues of courtesy aside, however, PJM's selective inclusion and exclusion of parties to these discussions has indelibly tainted the process and its results."
What? PJM's processes are tainted? Say not so! Coincidentally, that's exactly what we've been trying to tell you all along!
It's about time someone sends a very frank note home to Mother FERC regarding the playground behavior of her little brat, PJM. PJM is a selfish bully who steals from the other children. PJM doesn't know how to play nice and has no morals. It's time to take PJM out behind the woodshed and give it a little "tough love."
Consumers can't afford PJM any longer.
As expected, PJM's incumbent generator PIGS cooked up a new way to stop new generation entries in New Jersey and Maryland, and the PJM cartel, of course, was right there in the thick of things, giggling behind hairy knuckles.
Worse yet, PJM's "independent" market monitor was scheming right along with them. Shame on you, Market Monitor!
Douglas Nazarian, Chairman of the Maryland PSC, is calling foul on the PJM cartel's secret scheming to the detriment of electric consumers in the state. In a recent letter to PJM, Nazarian roasts PJM's PIG.
"I write to express our Commission's profound disappointment and concern with the clandestine and exclusionary process that has led to the latest round of proposed changes to the Minimum Offer Price Rule (the "MOPR"). Although we have and will raise serious objections to the proposal itself, those are for another time. At this point, because the process that begat the
new proposal was fatally and unfairly flawed, PJM should bring the fast-track "educational" process to an immediate stop and hold an open and transparent stakeholder discussion before proceeding further.
We were not shocked to learn that certain stakeholders would like to revise the MOPR further. We were shocked, however, to learn after the fact that PJM and the Independent Market Monitor participated in, and that PJM facilitated, a secret and exclusionary negotiation to devise a new set of MOPR revisions. PJM's own slides state that the discussions were initiated by suppliers and public power interests, but that P JM and the IMM were invited, and that selected other stakeholders were included and provided an opportunity 'to represent their unique interests." By PJM's own reckoning, four of its five sectors were included in the discussion - put another way, one of PJM's stakeholder sectors, the sector that includes Consumer Advocates, was actively excluded. And although we are not official stakeholders, State regulators -the parties most deeply interested in the terms of the MOPR and at whom these proposed changes are aimed - were excluded as well. So in spite of our well-known views on the MOPR, our
"unique" and public interests were, by design, never heard or considered.
Indeed, we and the Consumer Advocates and the few others not at the table learned of the discussions only when PJM Staff began rolling out (to great fanfare in the trade press) a fully formed proposal, using PJM's slide template, as part of a PJM-led "education process" that will fast-track this significant and targeted fait accompli from revelation to FERC filing in less than two months.
It may well be that we would never have reached
agreement with others on changes to the MOPR, but that is beside the point: these negotiations were held behind closed doors, with PJM's blessing and assistance (if not outright leadership), specifically for the purpose of revising the MOPR to the detriment of our State's long-term reliability needs. And the proposed changes are now being represented to the world, and will shortly be characterized to the FERC, as a PJM-endorsed proposal, despite the fact that the parties being targeted were affirmatively disinvited from the process.
PJM claims not to make policy. This time, however, PJM picked a policy winner at the beginning of the conversation, perhaps to try and preempt or moot the appeal to last year's changes that remains pending. This time, PJM excluded altogether the parties with the most at stake.
And this time, despite these shortcuts, PJM is visibly leading a forced, double-time march to the FERC on
behalf of a favored group of stakeholders, all so that the new rules can be in place for the May 2013 RPM auction."
Gosh, why does Nazarian sound so ticked off? Doesn't he already know that PJM is a self-interested industry cartel?
"Our experience with PJM since 2007 had led us to expect better."
Ooops, maybe not. Well, in that case, welcome to the real world that the consumers you serve have been living in for the past five years, Chairman Nazarian!
"Issues of courtesy aside, however, PJM's selective inclusion and exclusion of parties to these discussions has indelibly tainted the process and its results."
What? PJM's processes are tainted? Say not so! Coincidentally, that's exactly what we've been trying to tell you all along!
It's about time someone sends a very frank note home to Mother FERC regarding the playground behavior of her little brat, PJM. PJM is a selfish bully who steals from the other children. PJM doesn't know how to play nice and has no morals. It's time to take PJM out behind the woodshed and give it a little "tough love."
Consumers can't afford PJM any longer.
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