Growing investment in U.S. liquefied natural gas projects and a shortage of qualified engineers to review that infrastructure have created staff recruitment and retention troubles for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a FERC official told U.S. lawmakers on Sept. 11.
But legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress earlier in 2019 would help attract workers, he said.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Energy held a Sept. 11 hearing on several energy-related bills. Those bills included S. 607, or the Timely Review of Infrastructure Act, which U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and other lawmakers introduced in February.
The bill seeks to address a shortage of specialized workers, such as engineers, scientists and mathematicians, who can help FERC review the applications to build LNG export terminals and other energy infrastructure under the commission's jurisdiction. Among other things, the bill would give the chairman of FERC greater ability to raise compensation for categories of employees or other personnel if their pay is insufficient to retain or attract workers.
U.S. Reps. Pete Olson, R-Texas, and Mike Doyle, D-Pa., have cosponsored companion legislation to S. 607 in the U.S. House of Representatives. Olson and former U.S. Rep. Gene Green of Texas introduced a similar bill in the prior Congress, but the legislation never became law.
During the Sept. 11 hearing, FERC Executive Director Anton Porter said the commission's Office of Energy Projects has experienced a roughly 30% separation rate over the past four fiscal years for staff with engineering disciplines. Despite constantly trying to fill those positions to keep the office at its 345 full-time equivalent staffing level, 39% of the 176 vacancy announcements during that time failed to attract desirable candidates, Porter added.
About 18% of job offers to candidates with the needed skills were turned down, in part because those candidates could find higher compensation elsewhere. According to Porter's testimony, the annual median salary for petroleum engineers in the Washington, D.C., area is $175,861, well above the $122,605 annual median salary for a FERC petroleum engineer.
"The Office of Energy Projects has not been able to keep pace with staff attrition," he said.
In addition, Porter said other offices at FERC are experiencing "double-digit attrition rates." These other offices, including FERC's Office of Electric Reliability and Office of Energy Infrastructure Security, would also benefit from passage of S. 607, he said.
FERC has launched its own efforts to recruit more workers to handle the surge in LNG applications. In July, FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee said the commission will create a new LNG division and open a regional office in Houston to help process such applications. As of late July, FERC had approved five major LNG projects so far in 2019, but others are waiting for a final decision and new projects have entered the commission's early pre-filing review.
