McIntyre sworn in as Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chair

Kevin McIntyre was sworn in last week to begin a five-year term as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), giving FERC a full complement of five commissioners.

McIntyre will take over for Neil Chatterjee, who served as interim chair and will remain at FERC as a commissioner.

“I look forward to Chairman McIntyre’s leadership and to continuing to work with all of the Commissioners,” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), said. “My hope is that, after due consideration of the record, FERC will concentrate its full capacity on deciding promptly the many important proceedings on its docket. Coming from his decades of careful practice before the agency, I expect Chairman McIntyre will lead his colleagues to well-reasoned decisions that are effective to keep America’s energy networks reliable and affordable.”

Shortly after taking over as chair, Mcintyre requested a 30-day extension from the Department of Energy to act on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to provide cost recovery to power plants that maintain 90 days of fuel onsite.

Chatterjee proposed an interim proposal to provide temporary support to coal and nuclear plants while the commission considers the DOE NOPR.

“We have a long and productive relationship with FERC,” Charles Berardesco, interim president and CEO of the North American Reliability Corporation, said. “NERC looks forward to continuing work on the key priorities impacting grid reliability, including the changing resource mix, essential reliability services, and security challenges.”