Ethics waivers needed to address conflicts of interest involving Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Laura Swett are raising questions about how big of a role she can play in developing federal policy for powering data centers.
Swett and her choice for general counsel, James Dawson, both practiced law for the firm Vinson & Elkins. The firm represents Houston-based Talen Energy, which is involved in a seminal case about co-locating data centers with power plants, and Chicago-based Invenergy, which is participating in a case challenging a regional transmission planning rule.
Talen sued FERC over its rejection of a contract to supply an Amazon data center with more electricity from a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant. FERC is also trying to write guidance for how to co-locate computing centers and power plants inside the eastern regional grid PJM. Talen and Invenergy both submitted comments on the docket.
People familiar with how FERC handles ethical questions, granted anonymity to speak on a sensitive issue, said that Swett will probably have to seek an ethics waiver to participate in the Talen lawsuit and to vote on the prospective PJM data center co-location rule. Participating without a waiver, one person warned, could see a resulting order being thrown out in court.
