Morning Brief: Potential market manipulation in CAISO? Plus, FERC nominations and Eos Energy

FERC in focus: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will meet this week to consider the nominations of Allison Clements and Mark Christie to become FERC commissioners — nominations that have been on hold for weeks as the White House reconfigured the makeup of the energy regulator before the Biden administration takes over. But even if the nominees move forward this week, the Senate only has a handful of weeks left to confirm them before Joe Biden takes office. Source: Politico

Former CPUC President Loretta Lynch said California should review the rolling blackouts of mid-August and potential market manipulation in CAISO. Lynch spoke during a webinar held by the Clean Coalition. “I think it’s time for the California attorney general to investigate what happened at the ISO and, more than that, the ISO’s market practices that can’t keep the lights on,” Lynch said. “On Aug. 14, as Californians are being begged to conserve power, the ISO allowed over 4,000 MW of electricity to be exported out in the middle of an extreme heat wave despite the carefully constructed and planned-for demand forecast,” she said. Source: RTO Insider

Eos Energy Storage will supply more than 1,000 MWh of zinc-based energy storage systems over the next two years for installations in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, after it signed a preliminary agreement with developer Hecate Energy. The planned projects, including stand-alone battery systems and solar-plus-storage arrays, would expand Eos’ development pipeline to 3,000 MWh. Eos is working to complete a proposed merger with a special-purpose acquisition company backed by B. Riley Financial Inc. that would take it public on the Nasdaq. Source: S&P Global

Here’s a view on renewables from Mike Shellenberger on Twitter that we don’t hear around here that often: Everything they say about renewables is wrong. They worsen poverty and inequality; send our wealth to China; destroy the environment. If Biden cared about jobs, national security; climate change he would fight for a Green Nuclear Deal!

U.S. utility companies that made the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America: AES Corp, Duke Energy, Entergy, Exelon, PSEG, Sempra Energy, NiSource — based on corporate governance, innovation management, environmental policy, climate strategy, human capital development and corporate citizenship. Source: Duke Energy