It’s really nice to be here today — Happy Black History Month. It’s an honor and it’s humbling to hear the history of this law school, which has produced some of the country’s greatest lawyers and leaders over the last 150+ years.
Before I start, I want to take a moment to acknowledge one of these leaders. The news became official, but Chairman Phillips has been steadfast, and I have a lot of respect for the approach he’s taken to the chairmanship over the last year. I don’t know if it’s good luck or good planning, but to celebrate it here, today, in this moment, is really excellent.
E-1
We are voting to approve the latest iteration of two of our cold weather Reliability Standards. These aim to prioritize the service of critical natural gas infrastructure loads and improve operating processes during extreme cold. These standards represent forward movement in addressing lessons learned from Winter Storm Uri.
I do want to note, however, that some of these improvements are not required to be implemented until over three years from now. So, the grid, and its customers, won’t experience the full extent of these protections for at least 3 more winters.
I appreciate that NERC has worked hard to improve Reliability Standards and that the implementation timeframe here is responsive to some concerns from the stakeholder process, which is important. But as I’ve stated at past open meetings, waiting years for new Reliability Standards to kick in, whether they be cold weather or cybersecurity requirements, is not reflective of the urgency these issues demand.
So I echo the order’s call for affected entities to voluntarily implement the updated requirements as quickly as possible, ahead of next winter, when practicable.
M-1
I am also pleased to support this policy statement, which grants the Office of Enforcement’s Director discretion to authorize settlement negotiations without first seeking authority from the Commission.
The Commission will still determine whether any proposed settlement is in the public interest, but eliminating the formalistic step of seeking Commission approval to hold settlement discussions will improve efficiency and eliminate unnecessary delays in resolving enforcement matters.
In applying its discretion, the Office of Enforcement will draw on the wealth of experience gained over the last 15 years under the Commission’s existing policies.
H Items
For H-3 through H-6, I echo the Chairman’s comments regarding the Commission’s new policy for assessing preliminary permit applications for hydropower projects. Where a proposed project would be located on Tribal lands, and the Tribe states in the record that it opposes the requested permit, I believe it is appropriate that the Commission deny the permit application. Doing so is consistent with our respect for Tribal sovereignty over these lands.
And more broadly, this set of H orders emphasizes the importance of early collaboration with Tribes when seeking development on their lands.
A-3 OPP Annual Report
Thank you for your presentations. This is the first time OPP has presented before the Commission, so I hope that’s an annual occurrence.
I’ll echo the Chairman. Director Sitaraman is just so good at her job. I love working with her and watching her build up this team, which I think has almost doubled in the last year in terms of staff size.
And you know, these 900+ inquiries answered, and these 160 meetings — this is different. This is really making progress and meeting people where they are. And I wanted to mention the regional staff that OPP has hired are in the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf, New England, and Oklahoma. They’re based there and I think that’s really important.
And these explainers — if ChatGPT gets ahold of them, all the bloggers and textbook writers are out of business; they’re so clear and in plain English. I love reading them. I love looking at them. I love the graphics. So, I encourage you all also to read them.
And I will say that anytime I meet with a regulator from another country, one of the top two or three things on the list that they want to talk about is the Office of Public Participation, our experience, and our lessons learned.
It is our job at FERC to regulate in the public interest, and we cannot do that without the vital mission of OPP. Your work helps us hear from more perspectives and hopefully causes us as a Commission to make better and more durable decisions. That’s really important, and I thank you for that.