Lafleur

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.

While there have been moments of partisan division since she first came to the ostensibly independent FERC in 2010, real party-line rifts weren’t exposed until last year, Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur said Wednesday.

With one seat on FERC’s nominally five-member panel empty for more than three months and another due to be vacated this summer, natural gas and oil organizations are anxious for the White House to nominate new commissioners.

An agreement touted by Chairman Neil Chatterjee last month as a “significant” breakthrough in FERC’s evaluation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal applications may not live up to the hype, according to at least one Commissioner.

The natural gas industry needs to proactively address the fuel’s “complicated relationship” with climate change, FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur told a group of executives and other stakeholders Monday during a speech in Washington, DC.

The natural gas industry needs to proactively address the fuel’s “complicated relationship” with climate change, FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur told a group of executives and other stakeholders Monday during a speech in Washington, DC.

President Trump has announced his intent to nominate Republican Bernard McNamee to fill the vacant fifth seat at FERC, but how the confirmation process will unfold for the current executive director of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Policy is unclear.

In a split decision Friday, FERC issued a certificate of public convenience and necessity to Spire STL Pipeline LLC (Spire) for its proposed 65-mile, 400,000 Dth/d natural gas transmission project to tap supplies from the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) for delivery into the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Commissioners Cheryl LaFleur and Richard Glick, the two Democratic members of the five-member FERC, dissented to natural gas pipeline certificates on their agenda Thursday, as they have several times in recent weeks, and shed some light on their reasoning in those cases.