Regulatory Affairs news highlights: March 2026

 

Recent regulatory headlines we’re tracking include:

 

FERC approves new Reliability Standards for inverter-based resources

On Feb. 19, FERC issued an order granting approval of three NERC petitions filed pursuant to Order No. 901, which required NERC to develop new or modify existing Reliability Standards to address the impact of inverter-based resources (IBRs) on the Bulk-Power System. Specifically, FERC approved:

• NERC’s proposed definitions of (1) Distributed Energy Resource, (2) Model Validation, and (3) Model Verification for inclusion in the NERC Glossary;
• Five Reliability Standards: MOD-032-2 (Data for Power System Modeling and Analysis); IRO-010-6 (Reliability Coordinator Data and Information Specification and Collection); MOD-033-3 (Steady-State and Dynamic System Model Validation); TOP-003-8 (Transmission Operator and Balancing Authority Data and Information Specification and Collection); and MOD-026-2 (Verification and Validation of Dynamic Models and Data); and
• Retirement of MOD-032-1; IRO-010-5; TOP-003-7; MOD-026-1; and MOD-027-1.

 

House passes bill on critical minerals supply chains

In mid-February, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3617, known as the “Securing America’s Critical Minerals Supply Act.” The bill would require the DOE to assess critical energy resource supply chains, their level of vulnerability, and how reliant the U.S. energy system is on imported critical energy resources (such as critical minerals and rare earth elements).

The bill would also require the DOE to strengthen U.S. critical energy resource supply chains by 1) diversifying the sources of the supply of critical energy resources; 2) increasing domestic production, separation, and processing of critical energy resources; 3) developing substitutes and alternatives to critical energy resources; and 4) improving technology that reuses and recycles critical energy resources. The bill is now with the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for consideration.

 

FERC Commissioner David LaCerte testifies before Senate

FERC Commissioner David LaCerte testified at his nomination hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He has been nominated for a full five-year term at FERC (for the past four months he has been serving the remainder of Willie Phillips’ term). During the hearing, LaCerte discussed what he has worked on since joining FERC and emphasized that his “duty is to the ratepayer.”

He noted that affordability and reliability should be FERC’s “north star” and it is FERC’s duty to protect ratepayers from undue costs (especially in light of tremendous growth from AI demand). Commissioner LaCerte also stressed the importance of FERC’s resource neutrality, credibility, and independence. A full recording of the hearing is available here.