State Energy Insights: February 2025

Grid Reliability and Regulatory Updates from ReliabilityFirst

Upcoming Events

Feb. 20, 10-11 a.m. EST | FERC Open Meeting

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will hold an open meeting on Thursday, Feb. 20. There will be a webcast link available on the FERC website.

Event details

March 17, 2-3:30 p.m. EST | Tech Talk with RF

Join us for our next Tech Talk on March 17, where we’ll have a presentation on large load forecasting by PJM and incident review and guidance on voltage-sensitive large load by speakers from NERC and SERC. Stay tuned for more details to be posted to our website and LinkedIn feed.

Event details

News & Updates

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. Christie’s term, unless he is reappointed, ends on June 30, 2025. FERC’s announcement of the appointment is available here.

House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee holds hearing on energy topics

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy held its first hearing of the 119th Congress last Wednesday. During the hearing, the chair of the subcommittee, Bob Latta (R-Ohio), recounted previous hearings in prior congressional terms where experts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and other organizations agreed that demand is rising, and the U.S. needs more energy to meet that demand.

During the hearing, there was significant discussion of President Trump’s Declaring a National Energy Emergency order, including whether it would decrease energy prices. Several experts testified about America’s current energy production, the role of lawmaking in expanding energy access, and transitioning to renewable energy sources. A full recording of the hearing is available here.