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E&E News
8 hours ago
- Business
- E&E News
What does Rosner as FERC chair say about Trump's plans for electricity?
Unanswered questions about President Donald Trump's energy plans have deepened with reports that he intends to name David Rosner, a centrist Democrat, to lead the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. No official announcement had been made as of Monday. But a White House official confirmed to POLITICO an earlier report that Rosner, who has served on the commission since last June, would be elevated to FERC chair — at least temporarily. Former Chair Mark Christie left the post on Friday. Trump has nominated energy attorney Laura Swett and White House adviser David LaCerte, both Republicans, to fill vacancies on the commission. But political observers speculated that the current long waiting times for Senate confirmation of a series of Trump nominees could have prompted the administration to make Rosner chair for now. Rosner is a veteran of energy policy and regulatory circles in Washington. Advertisement Grid analysts and lobbyists continue to expect that Rosner's tenure will last only until Swett can win Senate confirmation to join FERC, and that she will lead the commission during the balance of Trump's administration.
E&E News
a day ago
- Business
- E&E News
David Rosner is set to lead FERC. Who is he?
President Donald Trump plans to elevate a Democratic member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to full chair as many continue to raise questions about the agency's independence. David Rosner — a centrist Democrat — will take over the position from former Chair Mark Christie, a Republican, who departed the agency on Friday after only six months as chair. The move was first reported by Axios and confirmed by POLITICO. The agency now sits at a 2-1 Democratic majority under Rosner, with Trump planning to fill the last two spots with Republican nominees: White House adviser David LaCerte and energy attorney Laura Swett. They still await Senate confirmation. Advertisement The appointments come as the agency faces unique challenges to address booming power demand from artificial intelligence data centers. The Trump administration has supported baseload generation sources, like fossil fuels and nuclear, to address such demand, while acting to marginalize more variable sources, like wind and solar. Rosner, who was confirmed to the agency in 2024 under President Joe Biden, has supported efforts to address the power demand issue by strengthening the reliability of the electric grid through an 'all-of-the-above' energy philosophy. He believes all kinds of energy generation and energy infrastructure, including expanded transmission planning and increased build-out of natural gas pipelines, should be utilized to address the issue. Before his tenure as commissioner, he was an energy analyst for the agency and later was hired by then-Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin ( Some environmental groups, like Friends of the Earth, criticized his support for natural gas at the time of his nomination, adding that such policies were not in line with the climate goals of the Biden administration. Rosner will also have to face growing concerns that the agency may be losing its regulatory independence under the Trump administration. Trump has signed executive orders seeking to bring FERC and other agencies overseeing big business under White House control, and pushed out Democratic former Chair Willie Phillips before the end of his tenure for reasons that remain unclear. Christie, for his part, had voiced support in principle for the administration's goals to increase energy supply while reiterating the necessity to adhere to the law. He acknowledged the growing concern over executive control across agencies in a recent interview with POLITICO's E&E News. 'If a chief executive can fire members of a commission, it's not independent,' Christie said. 'The ability to be fired is the dividing line.' Rosner's energy record Since joining the commission in June 2024, Rosner has steered his attention to the challenge of absorbing electricity demand from the tech industry's multi-gigawatt-size data centers. For FERC, questions came up about federal rules around co-locating power plants and data centers — a practice that would affect regional electric grids that serve big swaths of the country. 'We've got to figure out a way to unlock the efficiency of co-located load in generation,' Rosner said at a conference in November. And he's grown increasingly concerned about the wait time for electricity projects looking to tie into major regional grids. He's pushed for greater automation to speed the engineering process 'Getting grid interconnection moving faster is essential to ensuring reliability,' Rosner told POLITICO's E&E News in March. 'We're starting to learn about these new tools and platforms that just make this work faster, smarter, saves us time, solves the reliability and affordability problems that are facing the country.' Rosner has also supported efforts to ensure states aren't left on the sidelines during a period of rising energy demand. Rosner voted to boost the role of state regulators in planning major power grid expansions — an issue that head dogged Phillips. FERC's Order 1920, adopted with the support of only Democratic commissioners before Rosner joined the commission, requires that regional grid operators plan 20 years into the future for the high-voltage transmission needs. In addition, FERC directed that grid operators and states determine the allocation of costs for building long-distance lines. Critics, including Christie, felt that ratepayers could be saddled with the high costs of building transmission for the purpose of helping adjoining states meet renewable energy goals. 'We heard the states loud and clear, and we want to be responsive to them,' Rosner said at the time. Rosner has joined Christie to build on FERC's outreach to states by encouraging states in the West to collaborate on efforts to create organized electricity markets outside of California. Joel Kirkland contributed reporting.
E&E News
a day ago
- Politics
- E&E News
‘No shrinking violet': Trump 2.0's first FERC chair bows out
Mark Christie, chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, left the post Friday after just over six months at the helm, marking a brief tenure that saw warnings of power shortages before the end of the decade and threats to FERC's political independence. After President Donald Trump named him chair on Jan. 20, Christie entered the fray as a like-minded critic of Democratic policies: Coal plant closures were ill-conceived, wind and solar power weren't reliable, and climate policy was the wrong thing for regulators to focus on, Christie said. Before and after he became chair, Christie maintained a stubborn, almost evangelical belief in the states, arguing they're better suited than federal regulators to chart the path for a nation that now requires more electricity and for consumers who may pay higher costs. Advertisement The veteran regulator from Virginia issued a famously scathing rebuke of former Chair Willie Phillips' major policy effort, which sought to bring more federal order to the nation's interstate grid planning process. Christie framed it as an effort to force a left-leaning clean energy agenda on politically conservative states. But even as Christie hit the same notes as Trump, he could be out of step with the White House on questions of executive power over the agency. In an interview with POLITICO's E&E News, Christie embraced a characterization from Albert Pollard, a former state lawmaker in Virginia, who said of Christie, 'He's no shrinking violet.' When the Trump administration demanded that workers justify their jobs, Christie stepped in, writing a weekly letter on behalf of the entire agency instead of staff sending individual emails. Christie thinks the letters attest to the incredible work ethic of the agency, which publishes roughly three orders a day. A White House official told POLITICO on Friday that Trump intends to elevate FERC Commissioner David Rosner to the role of chair. Rosner is a Biden-era Democratic appointee to the commission. Christie's departure leaves FERC with a 2-1 Democratic majority. Trump has nominated White House adviser David LaCerte and energy attorney Laura Swett to the commission, awaiting Senate approval. 'No longer on the horizon' If there is one policy issue that defined Christie's time at FERC — which began as a Republican commissioner in 2021 — it is grid reliability. Christie became chair as the electricity and natural gas industries watched projected demand growth skyrocket. Tech giants planning massive artificial intelligence data centers from Ohio to Arizona changed the landscape for a utility business that had seen almost flat growth for decades. In the mid-Atlantic and Midwest, and for dominant utilities in the South and West, the projected gap between supply and demand tightened considerably. AI training and cloud computing demands are expected to push electricity loads into uncharted territory. 'The horizon is no longer on the horizon,' Christie said. 'It's across the street. It's here now.' He traces the problem to a basic imbalance: retiring too much dispatchable generation — coal and gas plants — while failing to build enough new resources to replace them, especially in the PJM Interconnection, the sprawling grid serving the mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes regions. 'Dominion alone has 40 gigawatts of data center load sitting in its interconnection queue,' Christie noted, referring to the Virginia utility. 'That's a quarter of PJM's entire peak.' Christie said the sudden demand spike is breaking the assumptions behind traditional resource adequacy planning. With market incentives for new generation flagging, Christie sees a new model emerging — one driven by the tech sector's need for near-perfect reliability. 'I call it BYOG — bring your own generation,' he said. Rather than relying on markets to secure future electricity capacity, Amazon, Microsoft and others are striking power purchase agreements and investing directly in electric generation. This trend, Christie warned, will intensify as data centers running AI programs require '10 to 15 times' the power of traditional cloud computing hubs. But it raises a crucial question: Who pays? 'The two most important questions in utility regulation are who pays and who profits,' Christie said. 'States are going to have to grapple with how to allocate the costs.' He pointed to Dominion's pending request in Virginia to create a new customer class for data centers as a possible national bellwether. Such classes get power at different rates as a way to allocate a utility's total costs and often include residential, commercial, or industrial users. If Christie had a major disappointment, it wasn't the brevity of his tenure but the commission's inaction on transmission costs. 'Transmission costs are now reaching the point of being the primary driver of people's monthly bills,' he said. 'FERC has failed to address them.' Despite his efforts, Christie said he was unable to secure the necessary three votes to reform policies such as return-on-equity adders or formula rate presumptions. He blamed 'tremendous lobbying by the transmission owner industry,' which he said has little incentive to give up the generous financial terms they enjoy under current rules. FERC independence Christie recounted learning of his elevation to chair in a call from a Trump transition official while watching football at a cigar bar outside Richmond, Virginia. There were no demands, no preconditions — just a simple ask: Would he accept the appointment? He did. And from his first press conference, Christie signaled he would be a more communicative chair, eager to consult with both federal and state energy policymakers. He emphasized his relationship with Peter Lake, a former Texas utility regulator now working at the White House National Energy Dominance Council. 'They've been very appreciative to hear what we're doing,' Christie said, stressing that no person from the administration attempted to interfere in pending cases. 'It's been what I wanted it to be.' Previous FERC chairs have emphasized the rarity of FERC-White House communications. Jon Wellinghoff, who served under President Barack Obama, said he never got one phone call from the White House other than an initial introduction. Former Chair Richard Glick had regular meetings with a White House climate adviser under the Biden administration. As Trump pushed out executive orders seeking to bring FERC and other agencies overseeing big business under White House control, Christie voiced support in principle for the administration's goals while reiterating the necessity to adhere to the law. In response to an order to automatically repeal certain regulations unless they were renewed by the commission, Christie said the administration was right to seek a regulatory house cleaning. Yet he said the specifics of the order needed further scrutiny. 'Everything we do — whether it's a rescission, whether it's putting a sunset provision on it — has to be done in accordance with law. Otherwise, you're just spinning your wheels,' Christie said in an April press briefing, warning that skipping proper procedures would almost certainly lead to reversals in federal court. Christie declined to speculate on whether FERC will become more politicized, but he acknowledged growing concerns about executive overreach across independent agencies. 'If a chief executive can fire members of a commission, it's not independent,' he said. 'The ability to be fired is the dividing line.' Ultimately, Christie said, FERC's fate may rest with the Supreme Court, which is considering a case testing the president's ability to remove commissioners without cause. The White House asked Phillips, the chair under Biden, to resign earlier this year, and Phillips agreed to. At other agencies, like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Trump has ordered commissioners dismissed. Christie's 'gold standard for an independent agency' is his former employer, the Virginia State Corporation Commission. 'It's done a wonderful job for 100-some years because it's independent, because the governor doesn't appoint, the governor can't fire — and, frankly, no one can. The Legislature [could choose not to reelect] you every six years, but that's it,' Christie said. Yet Christie said the administration's move to eliminate agency independence could have benefits. He said the current system is 'an insider's game' dominated by special interests that can afford lobbyists. Making FERC more beholden to an elected president, he said, might push the agency to prioritize the general public.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State utility regulators urge FERC to slash ROE transmission incentive
This story was originally published on Utility Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Utility Dive newsletter. Utility regulators from about 35 states are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to sharply limit a 0.5% return on equity incentive the agency gives to utilities that join regional transmission organizations. 'The time has come for the Commission to eliminate its policy of granting the RTO Participation Adder in perpetuity, if not to eliminate this incentive altogether,' the Organization of PJM States, the Organization of MISO States, the New England States Committee on Electricity and the Southwest Power Pool Regional State Committee said in a Friday letter to FERC. The state regulators and others contends the RTO incentive adds millions to ratepayer costs to encourage behavior — being an RTO member — that they would likely do anyway. In 2021, FERC proposed limiting its ROE adder to three years. FERC Chairman Mark Christie supports the proposal as well as limiting other incentives aimed at encouraging utilities to build transmission lines. However, it appears he has been unable to convince a majority of FERC commissioners to reduce those incentives. Christie's term ends today, although he plans to stay at the agency until at least FERC's next open meeting on July 24. Limiting the ROE incentive could reduce utility income. Public Service Enterprise Group, for example, estimates that removing the incentive would cut annual net income and cash inflows by about $40 million for its Public Service Electric & Gas subsidiary, according to a Feb. 25 filing at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The utility earned about $1.5 billion in 2024. Ending the incentive would reduce American Electric Power's pretax income by $35 million to $50 million a year, the utility company said in its 2023 annual report with the SEC. In April, WIRES, a transmission-focused trade group, the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, and GridWise Alliance, a grid-oriented organization, urged FERC to terminate the two dockets that propose to reduce existing transmission incentives. Since FERC started exploring changing its transmission incentives about six years ago, there have been major changes in the power sector that support continuing the incentives, according to the groups. 'With the declaration of a national energy emergency, President Trump has emphasized the urgent need to revamp and expand the nation's electric grid to meet growing demands, ensure reliable power supply, and lower the total cost of delivered energy,' the groups said. Removing the transmission incentives would create uncertainty, possibly chill investment and increase customers costs, according to WIRES, EEI and GridWise. Meanwhile, on May 15, a coalition of energy users noted that an appeals court rejected their challenge to one of FERC's incentives — the 'abandoned plant' incentive that allows a utility to recover its project-related expenses even if it is never fully built. The court ruled that the groups lacked standing to bring the challenge. 'Under the existing regulatory regime, consumers are disincentivized from protesting an abandoned plant incentive application before FERC (because it would be an exercise in futility), while utilities (in the absence of any viable challenge) are even further encouraged to seek and obtain the right to recover 100% of prudently incurred costs in transmission rates for abandoned projects, regardless of the degree of risks presented by the project,' the groups said in a joint filing. Given the expected buildout of the transmission system, requests for transmission incentives will likely surge, putting 'severe upward pressure on rates,' Industrial Energy Consumers of America, American Forest & Paper Association, PJM Industrial Customer Coalition, Coalition of MISO Transmission Customers, the Resale Power Group of Iowa and Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group said in their joint filing. Recommended Reading FERC's Christie offers 'compromise' on transmission financial incentives Sign in to access your portfolio
E&E News
03-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
White House nominates energy attorney Laura Swett to FERC seat
President Donald Trump nominated energy attorney Laura Swett to fill Chair Mark Christie's term-limited seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday. Swett will have to get through Senate confirmation to join the commission. The White House has not yet indicated who it will designate FERC chair after Christie departs. Swett, a litigation counsel at the law firm Vinson & Elkins, previously served as an oil pipeline adviser to former FERC Chair Kevin McIntyre and Commissioner Bernard McNamee, who wrote the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 section on FERC. Advertisement Swett's nomination indicates the White House will not be renominating Christie to the commission, though he could be appointed to fill another commissioner's seat at a later point. A Republican from Virginia, Christie is considered to be one of the most experienced energy regulators in the country and was first nominated to FERC by Trump in July 2020. 'I learned this evening from a media inquiry that Pres. Trump has appointed Laura Swett to replace me when my term expires,' Christie wrote Monday evening on the social media site X. 'I congratulate Laura and wish her the best. I will remain in office for a few weeks after June 30 to help get key orders out.' Neil Chatterjee, who served as FERC chair in the first Trump administration, called the news 'bittersweet' on X. 'I adore Laura Swett and believe she will be an excellent chair (if given the chance by OIRA and OMB). But [Christie] is a patriot. All he did was run the agency well. He's a veteran who has dedicated his life to serving America. He deserved better,' Chatterjee wrote. Swett has a cumulative six years working at FERC, first as an enforcement investigator and later as an adviser to McNamee. McNamee's section of the Project 2025 report laid out an energy strategy for the second Trump administration. Under it, commissioners would be barred from favoring carbon-free power or justifying costs for 'advancing vague 'societal benefits' such as climate change.' It called for an end to long-range grid planning, leaving it to states. And it called on FERC to focus exclusively on electric reliability by remaking the way markets price electricity, revaluing coal, gas and nuclear power so they compete with cheaper sources of wind and solar power. The chapter further criticized FERC Order 2023, which would help clear backlogs of mostly renewable energy projects waiting to connect to power grids. McNamee wrote that the order 'will make it less economical for reliable, dispatchable resources like coal, nuclear, and natural gas to stay operational and support reliability.' For his part, then-Commissioner Christie called Order 2023 'progress' and voted for it two years ago.
