Statement of Commissioner Scott D. O’Malia, Revised Relief from the De Minimis Threshold for Certain Swaps with Utility Special Entities
March 21, 2014
I am pleased that the Commission staff has issued this revised relief to exclude utility operations-related swaps from the calculation of the de minimis threshold.1 This relief is a step in the right direction to address the impact on certain utilities that are special entities that were inadvertently caught up by the Commission’s rules. I have long called for such relief.2 Although my preferred approach would be to address this issue through a rulemaking that is subject to the Administrative Procedure Act, I appreciate the Commission staff’s effort to address some of the concerns that these entities have raised with the Commission. If the Commission is serious about helping end-users, I challenge the Commission to complete a new rule before the second anniversary of the petition seeking an amendment of Commission regulation 1.3(ggg)(4) (i.e., July 12, 2014).3
1 This relief supersedes No-Action Letter No. 12-18, available at, http://www.cftc.gov/idc/groups/public/@lrlettergeneral/documents/letter/12-18.pdf.
2 Testimony of the Honorable Scott D. O’Malia Before the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management House Committee on Agriculture, July 23, 2013, available at, http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opaomalia-28.
3 The Commission received a petition for rulemaking dated July 12, 2012 from the American Public Power Association, the Large Public Power Council, the American Public Gas Association, the Transmission Access Policy Study Group, and the Bonneville Power Administration, available at, http://sirt.cftc.gov/sirt/sirt.aspx?Topic=PendingFilingsandActionsAD&Key=23845.
Last Updated: March 21, 2014