Newly appointed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee told reporters Oct. 31 that his predecessor, a long-time regulatory lawyer, taught him a lot regarding the agency's independence and statutory requirements. Chatterjee also said he has taken those lessons to heart and vowed to leave his political activist pedigree behind him as he leads the agency going forward.
Any actions FERC will take with him at the helm "will be fact-based and reflect the record and the rule of law," Chatterjee said.
Chatterjee held FERC's gavel once before, on an interim basis, after serving as a key energy adviser to Senate Majority Leader and fellow Kentuckian Mitch McConnell. His initial stint heading the agency, which began in August 2017 and lasted roughly four months, was controversial because he promoted a proposal advocated by the Trump administration, as well as an interim one he drew up himself, to provide out-of-market financial support to struggling coal-fired power plants. That support led to fears that the independent agency was being politicized.
However, the proposals eventually were shot down or abandoned, including a plan floated by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry that the commission unanimously rejected a month after Kevin McIntyre took over as head of the agency in December 2017. FERC found the plan to be unsupported by the record.
McIntyre recently was forced to give up leading the agency due to health issues and will serve only as a commissioner going forward. That resulted in President Trump appointing Chatterjee to head the agency once again — this time, not on an interim basis — and he is vowing that his second stint as chair will be different from the first.
"I've had time to meet with stakeholders, staff and colleagues from around the country to learn the importance of the commission's processes, cultures, morés, and traditions," Chatterjee explained.
The new chair said the individual most responsible for his transition from a partisan legislative aide to independent regulator was McIntyre, who spent more than two decades practicing before joining the agency. And as its leader, Chatterjee said, McIntyre repeatedly stressed the importance of the rule of law, adhering to the record and ensuring that politics does not interfere with the work of the agency.
Despite several 3-2 votes on some high-profile issues, Chatterjee said the agency's actions under McIntyre reflected that independence. While some may have interpreted those votes as political, Chatterjee insisted that they reflected genuine policy disagreements on relatively narrow and discreet issues. That said, Chatterjee acknowledged that the strongest policies are those passed unanimously, and he expressed optimism that he will be able to create consensus going forward.
When asked about whether he planned to make any major staff changes, especially with respect to McIntyre's chief of staff, Anthony Pugliese, who made some highly political remarks to the conservative news organization Breitbart, Chatterjee said he would not be doing so. Chatterjee cited the need to maintain continuity and insisted that Pugliese has been a good administrator and did not influence the commission to act in a political manner. He also reported that has stressed to all FERC staff, including Pugliese, that the agency will continue to act in a nonpolitical manner under his leadership.
Turning to his priorities going forward, Chatterjee said high on that list is the agency's pending inquiry (FERC docket AD18-7) into the resilience of the bulk power system, which FERC initiated at the same time it shot down the DOE proposal. The chairman said he initially was sympathetic to Perry's proposal because of his concern about the impact of the retirement of coal-fired generation on rural communities. However, Chatterjee said he has since learned that those concerns were not part of the record and by statute cannot factor into FERC's decisions, which is why he ended up voting against the proposal.
Interestingly, however, Chatterjee said the commission essentially adopted the interim fuel security proposal he developed the last time he was chair in response to New England's fuel security struggles.
Chatterjee said he is undecided on whether more needs to be done to address grid resilience. Noting that he is still reviewing the record, the chairman said any action that would be taken to that end would have to be supported by the facts, the record and the rule of law. "It will not be a politically influenced decision," Chatterjee maintained.
More generally, Chatterjee said he is very pro-market but also very pro-states' rights, including the right to choose their own generation resource mix. Those two core beliefs "are colliding right now," he added, citing state actions that are impacting markets. Finding the appropriate balance is not easy, Chatterjee said, although he acknowledged productive discussions with his colleagues that he's had on the issue and noted that "some very bright people" are working on creating the appropriate solution.
Chatterjee said another of his priorities will be to continue processing LNG applications. In doing so, he cited a lot of interest in LNG projects internationally, not just for economic or geopolitical reasons but also for the fuel's potential to drive down global carbon emissions.
Ensuring the cybersecurity of pipelines will be yet another priority, Chatterjee said. He and Commissioner Richard Glick teamed up earlier to stress the importance of that issue, and Chatterjee said he has been encouraged by the industry's response. But the new chair said he will keep pushing the issue going forward.
Finally, Chatterjee said he will not wait to take on those issues until the Senate confirms fellow Republican Bernard McNamee as a new commissioner. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Commission has scheduled a Nov. 15 hearing for McNamee's nomination, but Chatterjee said "there's too much on our plates" to wait for the uncertain Senate confirmation process to play out.
