PATH FORWARD: How FERC’s New Chair Will Impact the Oil Industry

U.S. President Joe Biden recently named Richard Glick to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and has stated that this is a significant moment to make progress on the transition to a clean energy future.

Already, Glick has stressed the need for FERC to analyze more seriously the climate impacts of new oil and gas pipelines, compressor stations and gas export terminals. Despite this strong stance on decarbonization, the commission will favor the development of natural gas export facilities because exporting natural gas can be a “real economic engine for U.S,” Ken Irvin, co-leader of global energy practice with Sidley Austin, told Hart Energy’s Faiza Rizvi in a recent interview.

Still, Irvin believes that, under Glick’s leadership, new LNG projects could take longer to secure approval.

Reassuring oil and gas workers, Irvin said Biden has made a lot of promises that the transition to renewable energy, decarbonized electricity and transportation “will not be done on the backs of oil and gas workers and Joe Biden and his Cabinet have made promises that they will find ways to keep that field employed and to keep the economic prosperity of oil and gas not being decimated by [energy] transition.”