(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration has appointed Mark Christie as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency responsible for overseeing US power grids and making key decisions on multibillion-dollar energy projects.
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Christie will take over from Democratic Chairman Willie Phillips. The role has become politically charged as the once-obscure agency plays a vital role in the energy transition. The US faces unprecedented demand for electricity while operating with an aging power infrastructure.
During Donald Trump’s first term, FERC’s efforts to enable rules to bring back coal or build natural gas pipelines largely failed. In addition, investigations of wrongdoing in energy markets fell to a record low.
Today, demand for energy has the potential to grow at an unprecedented clip with the construction of energy-hungry data centers and electrification of vehicles and buildings. The planned ramp-up of artificial intelligence is creating a national security imperative to repair America’s aging infrastructure in the face of extreme weather and lack of investment.
Christie, who was named to the commission by Trump in 2020, previously served on Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities, insurance and banking, for 17 years, most recently as chair. He for years has been raising concerns that America’s grids are facing a reliability crisis due to underinvestment and more extreme storms.
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