Kelliher resigns as FERC chairman after three-and-a-half years

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher resigned on Jan. 7, effective Jan. 20. He led the commission for three-and-a-half years.

"Although my term as commissioner does not end until 2012, I will also immediately begin to recuse myself from FERC business as I explore other career opportunities," he said in a statement.

Kelliher noted that while he was chairman, FERC's authority expanded under the 2005 Energy Policy Act. "This law gives FERC better tools to discharge its historic missions of guarding the consumer from exploitation and promoting the development of a robust energy infrastructure, as well as giving the agency new missions on [electric power] grid reliability and enforcement," he said.

EPACT represented the most important change in laws which FERC administers since President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and gave the commission regulatory tools it needed to meet today's challenges, he said in the resignation letter he sent to US President George W. Bush.

Kelliher's legacy as FERC chairman also will include the siting of several liquefied natural gas import terminals and an energy price transparency initiative.

His impending departure leaves President-elect Barack H. Obama free to nominate a successor to resolve energy commodity jurisdictional questions with the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Obama already has nominated Gary Gensler as CFTC chairman and Mary Schapiro as SEC chairwoman.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected]