New chairman cancels meeting on electric vehicles
Newly appointed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman James Danly has canceled a roundtable discussion aimed at examining electric vehicles and charging infrastructure nationwide.
The technical conference, slated for December, was planned by former Chairman Neil Chatterjee, whom President Trump demoted to commissioner last week (Energywire, Nov. 5).
The purpose of the conference was for the commission to gain insight into how the increase of electric vehicles across the country could affect the transmission system and wholesale electricity markets.
The public notice offered no explanation for the cancellation. The agency declined to comment for this story.
A few days before the public notice, Chatterjee wrote on Twitter that the dialogue on electric vehicles “isn’t going away.”
Chatterjee was demoted in part for his efforts to boost renewable energy development and pave the way for states to implement a carbon tax in wholesale markets (Energywire, Nov. 6).
The commissioner said he was also being punished for his unwillingness to go along with the Trump administration’s governmentwide edicts against diversity training (E&E News PM, Nov. 6).
Observers predicted that a Danly-led FERC would cease all proactive agenda items, opting for a more reactive regulatory style (Energywire, Nov. 9).
“I don’t expect Danly to be an activist chairman,” Travis Fisher, who worked on Trump’s FERC transition team, said in a recent interview.