Regulatory Affairs news highlights: February 2025

 

Recent regulatory headlines we’re tracking include:

Mark Christie named FERC Chairman

President Donald Trump elevated Commissioner Mark Christie to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman on Jan. 20. Christie replaces Willie Phillips, who had served as FERC Chairman under President Joe Biden. In a statement, Christie stated that he would focus on three priorities: protecting consumers from excessive power costs, improving reliability by slowing down the pace of retirements of dispatchable generation and building new generation, and involving states and their utility regulators in meeting these reliability and affordability challenges. Christie began his term as a FERC Commissioner on Jan. 4, 2021, after being nominated by President Trump in July 2020 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Nov. 30, 2020. FERC’s announcement of the appointment is available here.

 

President Trump issues National Energy Emergency executive order

Shortly following his inauguration, President Trump signed several executive orders including the Declaring a National Energy Emergency Executive Order, which calls for the U.S. to develop a “reliable, diversified, and affordable” energy supply to lower energy prices and increase energy security, particularly security from foreign actors and nations. It includes several directives to executive departments and agencies, including that they must “identify and exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them…to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources.”

 

Department of Energy provides funding for reliability and resilience program

In January, the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Grid Deployment Office announced that it is providing up to $35 million to bolster grid resilience and reliability through the Joint Assessment of Resilience in Vulnerable Infrastructure Systems (JARVIS) program. The DOE hopes that JARVIS will enable utilities to enhance grid resilience against extreme weather, improve flexibility through data analytics and smart grid technologies, and facilitate the integration of distributed energy resources. Utilities will use funding received from the JARVIS program to engage with service providers, such as research institutions, consulting firms, or technology companies, to deploy advanced technologies and incorporate modeling to identify and mitigate grid vulnerabilities, enabling greater integration across diverse energy portfolios. Read more about the JARVIS program here.

 

CISA issues guidance on resiliency best practices for critical facilities

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Resilient Power Working Group (RPWG) have released a reference document titled Resilient Power Best Practices for Critical Facilities and Sites. The goal of the effort is to help maintain power to critical infrastructure at key facilities during emergencies, and the document includes guidance and best practices on topics such as:

• Power resilience levels for critical infrastructure related facilities and sites
• Governance documents, risk management plans, and risk management audits
• Emergency and backup power generation systems and fuel
• Facility/site operations and maintenance
• Telecommunications
• Power transfer systems, energy storage, and microgrids
• Cybersecurity, physical security, and electromagnetic security