By Kennedy Maize
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Mark Christie last week downplayed the significance of President Trump’s new executive order on independent administrative agencies. In a session with reporters following FERC’s February open meeting — his first as FERC chairman — Christie said the order, which he has read twice, is largely business as usual, “putting into place our past practices.”
Christie said FERC already provides the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs with information on its major actions, such as its recent groundbreaking Order 1920. He said the commission has “complied with presidential orders for decades,” noting that his immediate predecessor, Rich Glick, “met regularly with the White House, and that’s perfectly appropriate.”
Christie also didn’t see anything unusual in the White House’s indirect assertion that it could remove him as chairman (although not as a member of the commission, as that is defined by law). He noted that Trump removed his first-term appointed FERC chairman Neil Chatterjee in 2020 after Chatterjee expressed interest in carbon pricing as a tool for reducing greenhouse gases (Trump apparently thinks greenhouse gases are a good thing). Chatterjee served out his commission term, which ended in 2021.
Trump replaced Chatterjee as chairman with the other Republican commission member at the time, James Danly, previously FERC’s acerbic general counsel. Danly served only 77 days (the shortest term for a FERC chair in history) before President Biden replaced him with Glick. This January, Trump said he would name Danly deputy energy secretary.
Christie said he would seek clarification from the White House over whether the order applies to the hundreds of routine proceedings the commission deals with continuously, doubting that OMB wants to inundate itself with those actions. “One thing that’s undefined, and I’m going to seek a detailed response, is the EO talks about ‘regulatory actions,’ which is sort of a nebulous term.” He said, “We’re going to ask the appropriate places for more detail and see how this plays out.”
Christie also emphatically noted that FERC has not fired any of its probationary employees, which Trump’s out-of-control chaos commando Elon Musk (whom the White House has said in legal filings has no authority) has “ordered” executive branch agencies to do.
Christie, 71, a lawyer and veteran energy regulator, grew up deep in Appalachian coal country in Welch, W.Va. He was a Marine officer from 1975-1978 after graduating from Wake Forest University and before Georgetown University law school. He was a member of the Virginia State Corporation Commission from 2004 to 2021, including serving as chairman from 2009-2010. Trump nominated him to FERC in late 2020.
At its Feb. 20 open meeting, a unanimous FERC (Commissioner Judy Change did not participate) issued two orders aimed at bringing order out of the so-far confusing and sometimes chaotic issue of co-locating energy-hungry data centers in the PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest regional transmission operator. FERC ordered PJM and its transmission owners to show cause that PJM’s open access transmission tariff is “just and reasonable” and what changes might be needed if it is found to be unjust.
Separately, FERC rejected proposed PJM tariff revisions by Exelon to deal with co-located loads and their impacts on the grid. In a news release, FERC said, “The Commission ruled that Exelon Companies’ proposal exceeds their filing rights. Generic issues regarding co-location raised in Exelon Companies’ filings, however, may be considered in the PJM proceeding initiated by the Commission.”
At Thursday’s meeting, Christie said of the co-location confusion, “We want to act quickly. We want to move on it.” In a statement after the meeting, Christie wrote, “That is worth emphasizing. While we cannot announce a specific date for final action, it is our intent to conduct and complete this important proceeding expeditiously, so we can provide clarity and certainty to all, from consumers to investors to load-serving utilities and independent generators. We set tight timelines for responses: 30 days for the first round and 30 days for the second round. We will act to issue an order as quickly thereafter as feasible.”
In other action at the meeting:
- FERC announced it will hold a two-day meeting June 4-June 5 on resource adequacy issues for regional transmission operators and independent system operators at the commission’s Washington headquarters. Resource adequacy has long been a top item on Christie’s policy agenda. He said, “For years I have been warning that rising demand forecasts and the failure to retain existing generators or build adequate new power generation is threatening resource adequacy and the reliability of our power grid.”
- FERC and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners will hold an April 30 session of their joint Federal-State Current Issues Collaborative. FERC created the collaborative in March 2024 in Docket No. AD24-7-000. It is made up of the five FERC commissioners and 10 state regulatory agency representatives, nominated by NARUC and affirmed by FERC.
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