The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.
TELECOM
FCC
The FCC announced it would hold the second Local Number Portability Administrator (LNPA) Transition Outreach and Education Plan (TOEP) webcast on January 27, 2016, from 3:00-4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). The webcast will be hosted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP, the Transition Oversight Manager for the LNPA transition. Interested parties may register for the webcast by visiting: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1088619.
The first webcast was held December 9, 2015.
FTC
The Federal Trade Commission announced the revised monetary thresholds that determine whether companies are required to notify federal antitrust authorities about a transaction under Section 7A of the Clayton Act. For 2016, the size-of-transaction threshold for reporting proposed mergers and acquisitions subject to antitrust enforcement will increase from $76.3 million for 2015 to $78.2 million. The new thresholds will be effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The FTC also revised the monetary thresholds that trigger a prohibition preventing companies from having interlocking memberships on their corporate boards of directors under Section 8 of the Clayton Act. The 2016 thresholds are $31,841,000 for Section 8(a)(l) and $3,184,100 for Section 8(a)(2)(A). The new thresholds will be effective upon publication in the Federal Register. The current threshold amounts are posted on the FTC’s website. The list will be updated for 2016 once the revised thresholds are published in the Federal Register.
ENERGY
New York
The Governor announced the New York State Public Service Commission’s approval of a 10-year, $5 billion Clean Energy Fund (Fund) to accelerate the growth of New York’s clean energy economy, address climate change, strengthen resiliency in the face of extreme weather, and lower energy bills for New Yorkers starting this year. Additionally, the fund will “attract and leverage third-party capital to support the Governor’s aggressive Clean Energy Standard, one of the nation’s most ambitious goals to meet 50 percent of our electricity needs with renewable resources by 2030.” The Fund will be administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. It is expected to result in more than $39 billion in customer bill savings over the next 10 years. In addition, consumers and businesses are expected to see a reduction of $91 million from 2016 electric and gas costs compared to 2015. See Governor’s Press Release here and PSC State Energy Plan Overview here.