SoylentNews

-- OriginalOwner_ [tinyurl.com] writes:

from the win-for-consumers-and-greenies dept.

The Environmental Defense Fund reports [edf.org]

"Today's Supreme Court decision is a victory for all Americans who want greater choice and [who] value broader customer access to clean, low-cost energy", said Fred Krupp, president of EDF. "Demand response is helping millions of Americans get low-cost, clean, and reliable electricity. Today's court ruling will help expand customer choice and [will] solidify demand response as a crucial part of our clean energy future."

The Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling and decided in favor of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) well-designed clean energy policy in [the two counts of the case it reviewed]. The Supreme Court vote was 6-to-2 in the case; Justice Alito was recused.

[...]Justice Kagan, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy, wrote the majority opinion, saying, "The Commission, not this or any other court, regulates electricity rates".

The case centered on FERC Order 745, the landmark policy that provides fair-market compensation for demand response in wholesale energy markets. Demand response is an energy conservation tool that relies on people and [distributed] technology, not [centralized] power plants, to meet America's electricity needs affordably.

Via AlterNet, The Natural Resources Defense Council adds [alternet.org]

Under [Order 745], grid operators are required to pay demand response participants the same rates for reducing energy use as those paid to power suppliers for producing energy from resources like coal, natural gas, and wind and solar power. FERC said the rule reflected the common sense view that "markets function most effectively when both supply and demand resources have appropriate opportunities to participate".

[...]FERC's order was backed by a broad set of interests that included [the Natural Resources Defense Council's environmental coalition [nrdc.org]], states, utility regulators, grid operators, academics, economists, and consumer groups.

[...]Why are we so [darned] excited?
1. Customers continue to save money.
2. We maintain a key tool in the quest to slow climate change.
3. The court avoided unnecessary barriers to achieving Reliability 2.0.

Original Submission