The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission plans to shutter its policy office and rebrand it with a focus on technical analysis and transfer some employees to other offices, Chairman Mark Christie told POLITICO’s E&E News.
The Office of Energy Policy and Innovation currently coordinates new policies and rules for emerging problems in the natural gas and electric industries. The reorganization plan, developed following President Donald Trump’s February executive order directing “large-scale reductions in force” at agencies, will see OEPI rebranded as the Office of Technical Reporting and Economics with focus on, among other duties, writing reports and hosting technical conferences.
“We’re going to reorient the mission towards what we need, which is technical analysis,” Christie said in an interview. “We’re going to shift some resources into rate regulation, shift some resources into all the work we’re doing on rate cases, which is [Office of Energy Market Regulation], but no one is getting laid off.”
Christie, who is leaving the commission in August after Trump declined to reappoint him, said the recently renamed Office of Enforcement and Regulatory Accounting would also take in displaced OEPI employees.
