FERC guru to lead energy group opposing Trump’s coal bailout
FERC GURU TO LEAD ENERGY GROUP OPPOSING TRUMP’S COAL BAILOUT:
A switch up is occurring in trade group circles when it comes to covering FERC’s sphere of influence.
Devin Hartman, the free-market R Street Institute’s electricity policy director, will be taking over operations at the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, succeeding current FERC expert and president of the group, John P. Hughes, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Hartman’s background: Hartman, before joining R Street, was an energy industry analyst at FERC. He also served as a senior analyst at the state level with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
A critical time for the utility sector: Hartman will be taking over the helm of the trade group, which represents large industrial electricity users from refineries to steel mills, during a critical time.
ELCON has been part of a broad industrial coalition opposing Trump’s push to save coal and nuclear plants through a market-based system of incentives. The industry coalition wants the markets that FERC oversees to continue to support competition based on the cost of a resource, not on subsidization, which would harm and distort electricity markets.
Market defender: Hughes said in a statement that Harman is a good fit “for defending the competitive power markets that we worked so hard to create and maintain.”
Hartman said the electricity sector is “in an unprecedented era of technological change,” and he is “looking forward to ensuring the voices of large industrial users of electricity are at the forefront of that transformation.”
