EV roundtable at FERC canceled after White House turns over chairmanship

In an early sign of the leadership change at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency has quietly canceled a roundtable discussion on the impact that increased electric vehicle deployment could have on the transmission system and wholesale power markets. A brief Nov. 12 notice (AD21-5) states that the event is canceled without further explanation.

Then-chairman Neil Chatterjee in late October announced the roundtable, which he planned to lead Dec. 3. Since then, the White House Nov. 5 stripped Chatterjee of his leadership role, handing the chairmanship to James Danly, the former FERC general counsel who became a commissioner in March. While the White House has not publicly explained the abrupt demotion, Chatterjee has speculated that it may have been blowback for his recent greener steps such as those on carbon pricing or distributed energy resources.

While Chatterjee has taken multiple actions at FERC seen as favorable to continued fossil fuel use and development, he has also made recent strides toward opening the door to carbon pricing and aggregated DER resources like small-scale solar arrays and battery installations.

Recent technical conferences

The roundtable on electric vehicles was in line with a recent series of technical conferences Chatterjee convened on issues seen as critical to transitioning the power sector and its regulators and policymakers to a clean energy economy and grid of the future.

Electrification of the transportation sector is viewed as a key component of achieving deep decarbonization, while the Trump administration generally given a lower profile to climate considerations at across agencies.

In recent months, FERC had begun to tackle whether its policies are creating barriers for offshore wind development and hybrid resources that co-locate generation and storage. Most recently, it took on jurisdictional and logistical questions on the potential for the commission to approve and incorporate a state-determined carbon price into the wholesale markets.

While these issues are far from solved, FERC 's initiative on these matters was applauded by clean energy advocates.

FERC's press office did not immediately comment on the reason for the roundtable cancellation.

Open meeting Nov. 19

Further indications of Danly's approach at the commission, during what is likely to be his roughly 10 weeks as chairman, could emerge at next week's monthly open meeting. A number of high-profile items are on the agenda for action Nov. 19, Danly's first meeting at the helm.

Among those is an order likely on rehearing of FERC action on implementation issues under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act and qualifying facility rates and requirements. FERC's July 16 order gave states more leeway in setting the rates that utilities are required to pay under the decades-old law aimed at boosting small renewableand cogeneration facilities.

On the natural gas side, action is teed up on FERC's instant final rule that barred the commission from allowing pipeline construction while rehearing decisions are pending. The rule, responding to landowner impact concerns, has drawn criticism and early steps toward litigation from pipeline developers, who worry that it introduces substantial uncertainty into the process of developing new projects.

FERC Aug. 10 released a notice of denial of rehearing of the rule by operation of law and said rehearing requests would be addressed in a future order.