Chatterjee

Cheryl LaFleur, who has served at FERC since 2010 and headed the Commission twice, and who had planned to step down as early as June 30, said Thursday she would remain at the agency 60 days longer.

Cheryl LaFleur, who has served at FERC since 2010 and headed the Commission twice, and who had planned to step down as early as June 30, said Thursday she would remain at the agency 60 days longer.

With a plethora of natural gas export projects, and the pipelines that lead to them, destined for the Texas coast, FERC may establish a regional office in Houston, the chairman said Thursday.

FERC issued a certificate of public convenience and necessity authorizing Williams’ Gateway Expansion Project in New Jersey, but the Commission was divided over the issue of whether it should have considered the project’s contribution to climate change.

Bernard McNamee, a Republican who is currently executive director of DOE’s Office of Policy, was confirmed Thursday by the Senate to FERC on a straight party-line vote of 50-49.

FERC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are tasked with implementing federal climate policies, not establishing them, and as such the two agencies should act with “self-restraint” in their work on the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), according to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Neil Chatterjee.

The recent turbulence at FERC, including former Chairman Kevin McIntyre handing the reins to Neil Chatterjee, a potential fifth commissioner’s Senate confirmation delayed by the upcoming midterm elections, and current membership at two Republicans and two Democrats, shouldn’t stop the Commission from moving forward with its agenda, the new chief said Wednesday.

In a series of postings to Twitter on Wednesday night, FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee proposed pay increases, fellowship programs and a new regional office as ways to combat “personnel resource constraints inhibiting” an ongoing review of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal applications.

None of the five commissioners appointed to FERC believe the kind of emergency exists that would warrant a federal directive typically reserved for wartime and severe grid impairments to bail out faltering coal and nuclear plants. The commissioners’ views emerged during an oversight hearing Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.