Commissioner Chatterjee was sworn in yesterday. According to news reports, Commissioner Powelson has indicated that he will come to D.C. on Monday and along with his colleagues, get started on resolving the large backlog of proceedings right away. It is still unclear when FERC will commence its regular monthly Open Meetings, but typically, there is not a meeting in August even when there was a quorum. FERC can and often does use notational voting, however, meaning we could start seeing substantive orders soon.
There have been no formal announcements on any advisory staff positions yet for either new Commissioner or whether President Trump will seek to replace Chairman LaFleur with one of the two new Republicans as we wait for Kevin McIntyre to be confirmed and seated as the new Chairman. There are also no indications that Chairman LaFleur would leave FERC if removed from the Chair position, as was the case with Commissioner Bay.
Interestingly, Commissioner Powelson has indicated that he will commute from his Pennsylvania home (west of Philadelphia and northwest of Wilmington) to D.C. He commuted to Harrisburg as a Commissioner on the PUC as well.
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