FERC Hearing For PSC Chair Colette Honorable On Thursday

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by Roby Brock ([email protected]) December 1, 2014 5:03 pm 125 views 

Arkansas Public Service Commission Chair Colette Honorable, who has been nominated to the powerful Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, will be front-and-center before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources on Thursday.

Honorable’s Senate hearing to consider her nomination to FERC will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4 in Room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

In August, President Obama nominated Honorable to the five-member energy review panel. If approved, she will replace John Norris, who announced his resignation after serving on the FERC board since 2010.

The Senate hearing will be webcast live on the committee’s website, which you can access at this link.

If Honorable is approved by the committee, she will face confirmation by the full U.S. Senate.

The FERC is the federal agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. According to its website, FERC also:

  • Regulates the transmission and wholesale sales of electricity in interstate commerce;
  • Reviews certain mergers and acquisitions and corporate transactions by electricity companies;
  • Regulates the transmission and sale of natural gas for resale in interstate commerce;
  • Regulates the transportation of oil by pipeline in interstate commerce;
  • Approves the siting and abandonment of interstate natural gas pipelines and storage facilities;
  • Reviews the siting application for electric transmission projects under limited circumstances;
  • Ensures the safe operation and reliability of proposed and operating LNG terminals;
  • Licenses and inspects private, municipal, and state hydroelectric projects;
  • Protects the reliability of the high voltage interstate transmission system through mandatory reliability standards;
  • Monitors and investigates energy markets;
  • Enforces FERC regulatory requirements through imposition of civil penalties and other means; and
  • Oversees environmental matters related to natural gas and hydroelectricity projects and other matters.

Honorable has served on the PSC since 2007 and has been chair of the three-person panel since 2011.

She also currently serves as Chairman of the Board and President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Arkansas Workforce Investment Board in 2007 and she has worked on the Attorney General’s staff during the administrations of Mike Beebe and Mark Pryor.

Honorable received a B.A. from Memphis State University and a J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.