The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to address circumstances of overlapping jurisdiction and to share information in connection with market surveillance and investigations into potential market manipulation, fraud or abuse. The MOUs allow the agencies to promote effective and efficient regulation to protect energy market competitors and consumers.
Finally, the CFTC and FERC seem to have resolved some serious jurisdictional overlap problems between the agencies related to Dodd-Frank (section 720(a)(1)), which required the agencies to adopt a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to resolve several key issues. It’s taken a while to get here. Recall that settling (or at least improving) jurisdictional questions became especially acute in the wake of the Brian Hunter case, where the CFTC joined the defendant against FERC claiming that the CFTC had exclusive jurisdiction over Hunter’s alleged trading violations. The DC Circuit agreed with Hunter and the CFTC (opinion pdf).
At long last, there are two MOUs, one related to jurisdiction (pdf) and the other related to information sharing (pdf). According to the FERC news release, the jurisdiction MOU provides a process the agencies will use to notify one another of issues “that may involve overlapping jurisdiction and coordinate to address the agencies’ regulatory concerns.“ The information sharing MOU creates procedures for the agencies to share information “of mutual interest related to their respective market surveillance and investigative responsibilities, while maintaining confidentiality and data protection.”
Perhaps the more interesting news (H/T: Craig Silverstein & Nathan Endrud) is the possibility of new licensing for wholesale power and natural gas market participants to deal with the people actually committing fraud and/or manipulating markets. There is not agreement from all the commissioners that this is necessary, but it is an idea of note for this continually evolving market.