FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee bid farewell and gave thanks to his colleagues and staff during what he said was “very likely” his last monthly open meeting at the commission Thursday.

Chatterjee’s term ended June 30, but by law, he is allowed to remain on the commission until Congress confirms his replacement or the end of the year, whichever comes first. FERC does not hold an open meeting in August.

However, that does not necessarily mean Chatterjee thinks a successor will be confirmed before September’s meeting. On July 8, Chatterjee tweeted that Chair Richard Glick, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm had all encouraged him to continue serving until he was officially replaced.

“There’s no doubt FERC is best at full strength.” But “there’s a lot to weigh, and I haven’t yet determined my departure date,” he concluded.

Chatterjee ended Thursday’s meeting by thanking a long list of family members and staff for supporting him during a turbulent four years at the commission.

Appointed chair by former President Donald Trump in August 2017 until the confirmation of Kevin McIntyre later in December, Chatterjee was in charge of overseeing a backlog of dockets that had built up over several months in which the commission lacked a quorum. He took over the chairmanship again in October 2018, when McIntyre stepped down because of an illness that would ultimately claim his life. Chatterjee then led FERC through the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the commission transition to working from home, until Trump demoted him again in November last year in favor of Commissioner James Danly, his own former general counsel. Biden installed Glick upon taking office in January.

“It’s no secret that Commissioner Chatterjee and I have had our differences over a number of issues,” Glick said Thursday. “We have both said a few non-complimentary things about each other during the heat of the battle.” He noted that both of them had come from a background as advisers in the Senate, where members and staff heatedly debate in public while remaining friends. “I value his friendship and advice. He has been nothing but completely gracious in helping me transition into the chairmanship role.”

Glick also noted that Chatterjee, a former adviser to McConnell who initially made no secret of his support for coal plants, “probably unfairly came to this commission with a Capitol Hill reputation as a climate change denier.” But he said he would be leaving with a new moniker: “the New Green Neil.”

Chatterjee said he is not sure what he will do next, but he hopes to have another role in public service.

“I don’t know in what capacity, whether elected, appointed or staff. But I fully intend, should I be able, to return to serving my country at some point in the future. In the meantime, the only definitive plan that I have is to take stand-up comedy classes at DC Improv. … I really want to test it to see if I’m actually funny, or if you guys have laughed at my jokes because of my tenure at the commission.”

POLITICO on July 8 reported that President Biden has narrowed his list of potential nominees to the commission to three: Willie Phillips, chair of the D.C. Public Service Commission; Massachusetts Rep. Maria Duaime Robinson, who represents part of the city of Framingham in the state legislature; and Tom Dalzell, a lawyer who has spent much of his career with the Northern California-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245.