By Michael Brooks
WASHINGTON — FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee emphatically denied Thursday that he is considering resigning from the commission by the end of the year, as was reported by POLITICO earlier this week.
“Let me say it right now: I’m not going to take a job at an RTO or a company or an environmental group or a consumer advocacy,” Chatterjee told reporters after the commission’s monthly open meeting Thursday. “I’m not going to run for office in Kentucky. I’m not running for office in Virginia. I have never expressed interest in being [the secretary of energy]. I intend to finish my term so that stakeholders can have confidence in the durability of this commission.”
Chatterjee, whose term expires June 30, 2021, repeated much of what he said when he talked to POLITICO in a podcast, in which he spoke passionately about the “privilege to be nominated” and honoring his “commitment to the president that nominated you, the Senate that confirmed you and to stakeholders.”
He noted that FERC “has been through a lot. There has been so much turnover in leadership, really going back to 2013,” which he said has negatively impacted staff morale and certainty with stakeholders. “I am not going to contribute to that,” he said.
Chatterjee also committed to staying on the commission even if a Democratic president is elected next year; as a Republican, he would be forced to give up the chair to a Democrat.
In the podcast, Chatterjee denied any plans on running for political office in Kentucky, where he will lead the EnVision Forum this Monday. (See Chatterjee Coal Country Forum to Consider ‘Energy Transition’.) He said that while Kentucky would “always be home to me,” he has lived in Virginia for 16 years and raised his children there. “I’m not going to disrupt that to move home to Kentucky and run for office.”
POLITICO also reported that Chatterjee is being considered as a potential replacement for Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whom the outlet also reported earlier this month was considering resigning by the end of the year. (Perry has similarly denied that report, but late on Thursday, President Trump confirmed he would leave and said the administration has already selected his replacement.) POLITICO cited “three people familiar with [Chatterjee’s] thinking” in its report, which it briefed it in its daily “Morning Energy” email on Tuesday.
“I was frustrated with the story because literally the only person that could know my future plans is me,” Chatterjee said. “The headline was I’m ‘eyeing the exit, per sources,’ and then my statement that I intend to finish out my term was three or four paragraphs down; I thought that was a little misleading.”
