The US Senate has confirmed Kevin McIntyre and Richard Glick to join the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), restoring the Commission to a full complement of five commissioners for the first time in over two years. Although FERC has had a quorum for two months, the full complement of commissioners should help the agency work through the backlog of pending proceedings that piled up in the six months that the Commission lacked a quorum. Major actions awaiting Commission action include the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) on generation resiliency, FERC’s 2016 electric storage NOPR, and numerous infrastructure proposals. Given the high speed at which the Commission is considering the DOE resiliency proposal, with an initial ruling due around the end of November, that action could be the first opportunity for the new commissioners to make their mark on a major policy initiative.
Mr. McIntyre, a Republican, was previously in private practice, and focused on compliance and enforcement matters, energy marketing and trading, market-based rates and other competition issues, tariff compliance and administration, energy exports, and electric reliability standards. Once he is sworn in, Mr. McIntyre is expected to serve as the chairman of the Commission and will serve out the remainder of a term that ends in June 2018 and a full term that ends in June 2023.
Mr. Glick was the Democratic general counsel for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Previously, he worked for former Senator Dale Bumpers and former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson before working for a multistate electric utility with a significant amount of baseload electric generation, and then for an energy holding company that operates several gas and electric distribution companies and is one of the largest renewable electricity generators in the United States. Mr. Glick will serve out the remainder of a term that ends in June 2022.