Former FERC chair 'deeply concerned' over threat to agency's independence

Actions by the Trump administration to exert more control over independent agencies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission undermine FERC's ability to make durable rulemakings free from political influence, two former chairmen said June 10.

Speaking at Politico's 2025 Energy Summit, former chairmen Neil Chatterjee, who led the commission during much of the first Trump administration, and Willie Phillips, who served during the latter half of the Biden administration and stepped down in April, said they had concerns that more White House control over the agency could lead to more regulatory instability and less investment for the energy sector.

The talk came just a week after the Trump administration indicated on June 2 that it would not be renominating current chairman Mark Christie, who has been largely viewed in the energy sector as having shielded FERC from some of the staffing tumult experienced at other agencies, for a second term. The White House nominated Laura Swett, a private industry attorney and former adviser to former Chairman Kevin McIntyre and Commissioner Bernard McNamee, to fill Christie's spot. McNamee wrote the FERC chapter in Project 2025, a policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation written prior to the 2024 US election by current and former Trump administration staffers.

Chatterjee said that while he believed Swett would be "great" if given the opportunity to be FERC chair, he was "deeply concerned" that Trump's decision not to renominate Christie meant the administration was going to put pressure on a new chairman to directly adopt administration priorities. The White House has not yet indicated if Swett will replace Christie as chair or if Trump will designate another Republican commissioner.

Along with Christie's pending departure, Phillips' seat is vacant.

"If the White House usurps control of the agency, and they have to clear everything through OIRA and through OMB, then effectively, the role of FERC chairman is no longer a head of an independent agency, it's basically a staff position," Chatterjee said. "And I have a real problem with that, because I actually do believe that FERC has been a beacon of stability in an otherwise volatile regulatory landscape for the last 10 years or so."

Impacts on investment

Both former chairmen said threatening FERC's independence could chill investment in the energy sector by increasing regulatory uncertainty.

Phillips said that he shared many of Chatterjee's concerns and that the "value" of FERC comes from the agency's independence. FERC's independence provides "confidence" for developers that investments will not be treated differently between presidential administrations, Phillips said.

"It's that level of confidence that allows for investment. It's that level of confidence that allows for certainty in our markets," Phillips said. "If you value energy independence and reliability, if you value the American economy, then FERC is a backbone of all that."

Chatterjee said the Trump administration's attempt to whittle away FERC's independence would make the commission function similar to the US Environmental Protection Agency, a cabinet-level agency that often sees dramatic policy swings between Democratic and Republican administrations.

"Investment decisions that a big utility has to make, these are not one- or two-year decisions, these are oftentimes five-, 10-, 30-year investment decisions," Chatterjee said. "It is going to be impossible to make investment decisions in that type of environment."

Firing commissioners

The former chairmen also discussed recent efforts by the Trump administration to fire members of independent agencies, despite legal removal protections.

During the talk, Phillips confirmed reporting that the White House had asked him to step down as commissioner in April, over a year before his term was set to expire. While Phillips acknowledged his exit came at the prodding of the White House, he said he was already planning to leave in the near future.

Chatterjee expressed some concern that a recent US Supreme Court decision temporarily allowing Trump to fire the heads of two independent labor boards might give the White House leeway to fire current FERC members and replace them with commissioners who are more in line with the administration's agenda. The Department of Energy Organization Act only allows three FERC commissioners to come from the president's party.

"I'm worried that is the next shoe that will drop," Chatterjee said.

Phillips, however, said that FERC's very structure as a five-member bipartisan commission could preserve the agency's independence.

"We have five members on a commission, and each commissioner has to make a public interest determination for every single case," Phillips said. "We don't build independence by making an announcement. We build independence one case, one decision at a time."