President Donald Trump today named James Danly as Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Danly has served as a Commissioner since March 2020; prior to that he served as general counsel to the Commission since joining FERC in 2017. He will replace Neil Chatterjee as head of the agency that regulates interstate transmission of electricity and natural gas.
“It has been my utmost pleasure to have served under Neil Chatterjee, both as General Counsel and alongside him as Commissioner,” Danly said. “I have learned a tremendous amount from his expertise and insight, and I am proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish under his thoughtful watch.
“Neil has truly left his mark on FERC and the energy sector by brokering a significant agreement allowing us to move forward with liquefied natural gas terminals, which helped secure our American energy independence,” Danly added. “He also made a lasting impact through his commitment to protecting competitive markets, modernizing our policies under PURPA, expediting the approvals of much-needed critical energy infrastructure and so much more. I thank Neil for his leadership, and I look forward to continuing to work with him in this new role.”
Chatterjee, who joined the Commission in 2017 and served as Chairman from August to December 2017 and since October 2018, congratulated Danly on his appointment and said the Commission will be well-served by Danly’s leadership.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve as the Chairman of FERC alongside my colleagues and staff, who represent some of the most talented and hardworking professionals in the US government,” he said.
“During my tenure, we’ve faced challenges like overcoming the significant no-quorum backlog to grappling with an unprecedented global pandemic. But we’ve had a great many achievements as well, including bringing PURPA regulations in line with today’s realities, building out our energy infrastructure and approving LNG terminals, unleashing the power of new technologies like storage and distributed energy resources, and most recently taking groundbreaking action to consider carbon pricing, just to name a few.
“All of these actions have significantly contributed to making American energy more reliable, resilient and accessible for the people we serve,” Chatterjee said. “But our work – my work – at the Commission isn’t over. I look forward to working with my friend, Chairman Danly, as well as the next Administration to continue to carry out our important mission.”
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