Five state public service commissions have banded together to request that FERC order a recasting of MISO’s long-range transmission projects, arguing the projects aren’t as beneficial as MISO has advertised.

Ameren Illinois argued to FERC that it should have dibs on sections of two competitive long-range transmission projects worth almost $2 billion from MISO’s second portfolio, claiming Illinois’ “first in the field” doctrine is tantamount to a right of first refusal law.

FERC sided with MISO IMM David Patton, denying a petition from MISO that would have prevented the RTO from reimbursing the Monitor for reviewing the market impact of transmission planning.

MISO Independent Market Monitor David Patton addressed the recent controversy surrounding his longstanding criticism of MISO’s latest, $22-billion long-range transmission portfolio at the Organization of MISO States’ Resource Adequacy Summit.

Regulators of MISO states are mulling whether they should work together to offer up an entirely new cost allocation for the RTO’s long-range transmission projects.

A collective of consumer groups has invoked a recent letter from the U.S. Department of Justice in an attempt to get FERC to act on its three-year-old complaint against MISO deferring to state right of first refusal laws in regional planning.

MISO’s end-use customers called for more “insight and transparency into” the variance analysis as well as a lower, 10% threshold on cost overruns to trigger the analysis.

MISO confirmed it’s taking steps to get answers from FERC about the role the Independent Market Monitor should have — if any — in transmission planning.