With a disruptive confirmation process behind her, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said she believes morale at the agency is improving as she attempts to make progress on priority issues before she turns over the gavel to Norman Bay in April.
In an interview with RTO Insider last week after her return from a late August vacation, LaFleur said she is happy that the leadership succession is now clear. “After more than a year of uncertainty,” she said “now there’s clarity that I’m chairman.”
LaFleur said it was hard to judge the impact that the failed nomination of Ron Binz and the bruising confirmation of Bay had on the agency’s 1,500 staffers. “But I think people have a little spring in their step knowing we’re past that stage.
“We talk a lot about the commissioners, but you know there’s a body of employees at FERC that maybe don’t get enough love. I think their efforts are what keeps this place moving along.”
LaFleur was appointed acting chairman in November to replace Jon Wellinghoff. After LaFleur and Bay were confirmed by the Senate in July, President Obama removed the “acting” title from LaFleur. She will serve as the panel’s head until April 15, when Bay, formerly FERC’s director of enforcement, will become chair.
The unusual arrangement was the result of a deal by the White House to win support for Bay’s confirmation. Some senators were angry that Obama had signaled his intent to appoint Bay immediately as chairman over LaFleur, who has served on the commission since 2010. The last five FERC chairmen served a median of 30 months before becoming chair.
The removal of the acting title allowed LaFleur to promote David Morenoff to general counsel, a position he had been serving in an active capacity for nearly two years.
LaFleur declined to say whether she received any assurances from Bay that he would keep Morenoff on next year.
“I did discuss it with Norman. I discussed it with all my colleagues. But it was my decision,” she said.
“When Norman is chairman he’ll make such decisions as he makes. That’s not for me to say [whether Morenoff will remain]. I don’t think David will stop being terrific.”
PJM Capacity Proposal
LaFleur said she was unable to comment about the specifics of PJM’s Performance Capacity proposal, which will be submitted for FERC approval later this year. (See related story, PJM Members, Monitor Skeptical of Capacity Market Overhaul).
Instead, she pointed to FERC’s April 1 tech conference. “We talked conceptually about whether there were ways to price more fuel security into the electric product,” LaFleur said. “This is one of the hardest parts of the gas-electric coordination – that the gas and electric industries attract capital differently.”
EPA Carbon Rule
LaFleur said conversations with state commissioners suggests many states are open to regional collaboration as a way to reduce the cost of complying with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed cap on carbon emissions from existing generation.
“I do think we will see some regional collaboration in some places,” she said, noting the carbon trading systems in California and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which includes New York, the members of ISO-NE and Maryland and Delaware in PJM.
