E&E News by POLITICO: FERC to kill policy office under Trump-ordered reorg

https://www.eenews.net/articles/ferc-to-kill-policy-office-under-trump-ordered-reorg

Karen Onaran, CEO of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, said she believes the reorganization stems from Christie trying to be practical, but she admits the office has a special place in her heart. Onaran remembers being a paralegal when Wellinghoff announced the creation of OEPI at a 2009 meeting.

“I said, ‘That is where I want to work. I want to go work in this department.’ I did interview. I did not get the job,” she said. “It was sort of on the verge of some of these unique issues, where we were starting to look at clean energy.”

With the office rebranding, Onaran expects an “adjustment” as stakeholders figure out how they will correspond with the commission, since OEPI has been a prime point of contact. She added that these changes will be undertaken as FERC and the nation brace for an unprecedented surge in electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence data centers.

“There are immense challenges, and now I’m thinking, ‘Who’s going to deal with all the large load issues?’,” Onaran said.