FERC will celebrate its 1,000 Commission meeting Thursday with a lineup of former chairmen and a performance by a student from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

Among those attending the regularly scheduled meeting will be former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairs Elizabeth Moler (1993-1997), James Hoecker (1997-2001), Curt Hebert Jr. (2001) and Joseph Kelliher (2005-2008). They will join acting chairman Cheryl LaFleur and commissioners Philip Moeller, John Norris and Tony Clark for a look back at FERC activities over the years.

FERC was formed in 1977 when Congress enacted the Department of Energy Organization Act, which reorganized the then-Federal Power Commission and expanded its responsibilities in the energy field.

The Partnership for Public Service, which ranks the best and worst places to work within the federal government, Wednesday ranked FERC as No. 6 (on a scale of 17 mid-size agencies) of the best places to work, just behind the Federal Trade Commission; No. 1 in work/life balance; and ranked FERC’s Office of General Counsel No. 4 out of 300 subcomponents of agency operations.

Government-wide, the federal employee job satisfaction and commitment level dropped for the third year in a row, tumbling three points to a score of 57.8 on a scale of 100.

“Of the larger agencies, employees at the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] experienced the biggest decrease in satisfaction, with a drop of 8.3 points to a score of 59.3…Small agencies registering large declines in employee satisfaction and commitment included the Office of Management and Budget, which fell 14 points; and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which dropped 13 points,” the ranking said. The Department of Interior had a lower satisfaction rating than the EPA.