Former Arizona regulator Marc Spitzer and ex-Alliant Energy executive Philip Moeller have been sworn in as commissioners at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Spitzer “was convinced to be less formally sworn in on Friday [July 21] so the Commission would have a quorum” in case a vote occurred before his formal swearing-in ceremony, said FERC spokesman Bryan Lee. Spitzer, a former member of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) and one-time state senator, took the oath of office in a more formal ceremony in Phoenix, AZ, last Monday.

Spitzer, a Republican, succeeds former Commissioner Nora Mead Brownell, who has left the agency. His term as a FERC commissioner will expire June 30, 2011.

Moeller, who most recently was head of Wisconsin-based utility Alliant Energy’s Washington, DC office, was sworn in last Monday by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts. A Republican, Moeller assumed former FERC Chairman Pat Wood’s seat on the Commission. His term would expire June 30, 2010.

Jon Wellinghoff, an attorney with the Nevada-based law firm of Beckley Singleton, is expected to be sworn in by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada on Aug. 1, Lee said. Wellinghoff, a Democrat, will take former Commissioner William Massey’s seat with a term expiring on June 30, 2008.

All five Commission seats will be filled at the agency’s next meeting (Sept. 21), for the first time in a number of years. The political make-up of FERC will be three Republicans and two Democrats. It will be the first time that the Commission will be made up mostly of westerners. Chairman Joseph Kelliher will be the only non-westerner.

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