• Willie Phillips will be the first Black individual to lead the FERC.
• He was previously the chairman of the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia.
• Richard Glick, resigned because Senator Joe Manchin did not conduct a confirmation hearing.

FERC said on Tuesday that President Joe Biden appointed Democrat Willie Phillips as acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Phillips was selected by Biden and authorised by Congress to join the panel in December 2021. Phillips will be the first Black individual to lead the FERC.

Before joining the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2018, Phillips was the chairman of the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia, where he championed environmental justice and equity. He was also a regulatory lawyer with nearly two decades of experience in both public and private practise.

Long ago, the independent panel of the Department of Energy had a low profile and was mostly recognised for authorising natural gas pipelines and LNG export terminals. After Phillips joined the FERC, this began to change, as the Democrats’ majority shifted to 3 to 2 and the Biden administration sought measures to transition to low-carbon energy.

But now that Phillips is acting chairman, FERC will be tied at 2-2 because the former chairman, Richard Glick, resigned because Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, did not conduct a confirmation hearing to consider Glick’s renomination by Vice President Joe Biden. During the impasse, analysts predict that the FERC will not address many topics beyond power transmission rulemaking.

Phillips will serve as interim commission chair while the Biden administration seeks a permanent nominee.

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