E&E News by POLITICO: Phillips’ departure tees up FERC Republican majority
Karen Onaran, president and CEO of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, echoed Chandler’s sentiment, adding that environmental issues will get less attention without Phillips.
“He was at times inspirational in his commitment to the work, especially some of the causes that we’ve been working on for a long time — transmission especially — but also bringing to the collective consciousness environmental justice issues,” Onaran said.
In the interim, Onaran with the Electricity Consumers Resource Council doesn’t expect Phillips’ departure to radically change the agency.
“How the commission sits now, I don’t see that two-two split being as problematic as perhaps it was a couple of years ago. I think that the current four sitting commissioners are very, very interested in finding consensus,” she said. “It will be interesting to see what happens when Chairman Christie’s term is up, whether that changes the dynamics or the scheduling.”