Locke Lord Energy Partner Jennifer Brough Provides Insight to Law360 as FERC Commissioner’s Departure Date Nears

San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Energy Partner Jennifer Brough shared insight with Law360 on her expectations for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur prepares to step down on August 30, leaving three commissioners out of FERC’s full capacity of five.

"I don't want to say it's a lame duck session, because they can vote on things," Brough said, noting FERC lacks “horsepower” to establish policy priorities while concentrating on “clearing the backlog of orders they have."

Brough also noted FERC is currently highly politicized, and LaFleur’s departure leaves Republican FERC commissioners with a 2-1 majority.

"There's definitely going to be a change in the future at FERC on how they analyze greenhouse gas emissions, and the makeup of this commission going forward will determine a lot of that," Brough said. "We're going to see a rush by the two Republican commissioners to vote on as many [projects] as they can before anyone new is going to come aboard."

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