Massachusetts AG Objected to FERC’s Failure to Facilitate Vineyard Wind’s Participation in ISO-NE’s Forward Capacity Auction

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) strongly objecting to the commission’s failure to issue a waiver that would allow a wind energy company (Vineyard Wind) to participate in ISO-New England’s Thirteenth Forward Capacity Auction as a Renewable Technology Resource. AG Healey noted that FERC’s exclusion of Vineyard Wind’s major offshore wind energy project from this regional market will cost ratepayers millions of dollars and harm regional efforts to increase fuel security. AG Healey raised additional concerns about the perceived bias of both ISO-New England and FERC favoring “traditional” fossil fuel energy sources, which is damaging to Massachusetts’s rights under the Federal Power Act to shape its mix of electric power generation and enforce its own clean energy policies.