FERC Chairman Pat Wood III, who has headed the agency since 2001, announced to his staff Wednesday that he will leave the Commission when his term expires on June 30. He will return to Texas, although in a press briefing with reporters Wood didn’t articulate any specific plans for his next career move. Commissioner Joseph Kelliher may be selected by the Bush administration as a likely replacement for Wood, if only temporarily.

“As my term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission comes to an end on June 30, I wanted to thank you for the unparalleled opportunity you gave me to serve you, Texas and our nation for this past decade,” Wood said in an April 5 letter to President Bush. “It has been a joy and an honor to be your point man on industry restructuring and oversight, both here and at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and I am proud of what we accomplished to solve problems and make markets work better for customers.”

In the letter to Bush, Wood said his family has enjoyed living in the Washington, DC, area, “but we look forward to returning home now that my four year commitment is fulfilled.” Wood noted that he and his wife are expecting their fourth child this September and son Patrick IV is starting first grade.

At a press briefing with reporters late Wednesday afternoon, Wood disclosed that he went to the White House “shortly after the election to let them know that my plan has been to finish up in four, so that they could kind of be ready for it.”

Wood’s expectation is that the Bush administration will “probably have a Republican nominee to fill my seat, to go along with the Democratic nominee that I think [Senate Minority Leader Harry] Reid has put up.” Last month, Reid recommended that the White House nominate a Nevadan, Jon Wellinghoff, for the open Democratic seat at FERC. Wellinghoff currently is a shareholder in the law firm of Beckley Singleton in Las Vegas, where he specializes in energy and consumer law (see Daily GPI, March 22).

“I’m not speaking for the White House, if they’re nominating Mr. Wellinghoff or not,” Wood said. “I think that process is on its own track, but my expectation — again, and I haven’t discussed this part either — but my expectation based on the past would be that those would be paired.”

A reporter asked Wood whether he wanted to stay on longer at FERC and whether he was asked to stay on longer. “I did not and I was not,” the chairman responded.

Wood was also asked whether, in his conversations with the White House, he recommended anyone to replace him. “I recommended a lot of good people and I’m going to let that stay at that because that was a private conversation,” he responded.

He did say that he recommended as well “the three good people that I serve with. I think it would even be interesting to have Suedeen [Kelly], but I think certainly Joe [Kelliher] and Nora [Brownell] if they wanted them — of course they’re already commissioners…to actually chair the agency too, I recommended that all three of them would be very capable people.”

When asked to describe what he thinks his biggest accomplishment has been while he served at FERC, Wood said that “the biggest accomplishment for me is restoring this agency’s morale and sense of mission. It was really a different place than the one I left when I came back here in June of ’01, for all the reasons you know with all the travails in the Western energy markets. I think honestly more than the policy issues [my biggest accomplishment was] turning this agency into something that I think a government agency should be and playing a part in getting the morale back.”

Wood also highlighted FERC’s infrastructure moves in the natural gas sector. “I think our pipeline infrastructure has come a long way — particularly out of the Rockies — and I will give a lot of the credit to the Commission before me. They made a lot of good policy decisions in the ’90s that I’m getting to bear the fruits of. With every California comes a pipeline policy statement, so I guess it’s an even hand of what I got dealt.”

Over recent months there has been speculation as to whether Wood, an appointee of President George W. Bush who became commissioner and chairman in June 2001, would seek a new term. Until this week, Wood had declined to say what his plans were.

Speculation surrounding Wood’s situation increased earlier this week when an Ohio senator called on the Bush administration to appoint a Republican member of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to sit on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Daily GPI, April 5). For Donald Mason, a member of the PUCO for the past seven years, to be considered for the Commission one of the current Republican commissioners would have to leave, conforming to the rule that no more than three commissioners can be from a single political party. The announcement increased the pressure for Wood to disclose his plans.

Wood moved into the chairman’s post at FERC after serving since 1995 on the Public Utility Commission of Texas. He also had been picked by then-Gov. Bush for the Texas post.

When asked by NGI whether he has ever given any thought to possibly running for political office — specifically, governor of Texas, Wood said, “Every little boy dreams of being governor of Texas, I think.” At the same time, Wood noted that he “doesn’t like to raise money for anything other than about the March of Dimes or some Catholic charity.” He added, “You’ll probably see me again, but I’m not sure where.”

One source believes Commissioner Kelliher “at least at the start would be considered the most likely” successor to Wood as chairman. But he acknowledged the White House may pick “someone not on the Commission” for the position.

Wood served as a FERC staffer in 1991-93 and was legal counsel to the chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. Additionally, he was an engineer with Arco Indonesia and an attorney with the law firm of Baker & Botts in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and Harvard Law School.

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