Grumbling

A number of senators last Wednesday grilled FERC Chairman Pat Wood on whether his agency has truly listened to concerns voiced by state officials over the Commission’s recently unveiled standard market design (SMD) for U.S. wholesale power markets. One senator went so far as to warn Wood that if the lawmaker isn’t convinced that FERC is genuinely working to respond to SMD-related worries articulated by various regions, he will push to derail the proposal in Congress.