The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the nation’s top energy regulator, is poised to pivot toward a more fossil fuel-friendly agenda after Republicans gained majority control of the agency for the first time in over four years – a shift that could pose new challenges for the renewable energy industry.

Forming the new and more conservative Republican majority are industry attorney Laura Swett, who was reportedly tapped to run the commission, and White House advisor and Trump loyalist David LaCerte. They join sitting GOP commissioner Lindsay See, a former solicitor general of West Virginia.

With the party-line Senate confirmations for Swett and LaCerte, the group now has the votes to advance policies that could be more favorable to fossil fuel interests over Democratic opposition. Given their policy stances, industry observers anticipate the commissioners will build on prior initiatives to fast-track the permitting of natural gas pipelines and implement rules that favor dispatchable fossil fuel-fired generating capacity, in lieu of renewable generation.

Swett, a former lawyer representing pipeline and electric power companies, made clear her stance in a Senate confirmation hearing.

Among her priorities include “keeping the lights on and the pipelines that are pillars of our economy flowing, at just and reasonable rates,” she said in her congressional testimony. She also listed as her top priority “maximizing FERC’s ability to encourage and facilitate infrastructure development, which has faced crippling regulatory uncertainty over the recent past.”

The reshaping of FERC comes at a critical juncture. The commission faces a once-in-a-generation surge in electricity demand from data centers that is testing the capacity of regional grids and sending consumer prices soaring. As the chief regulator of wholesale energy markets, the agency will need to determine whether and how regional markets should best accommodate this explosive load growth, including what role renewables should play.

Amid Trump’s anti-renewable policies, PPAs in PJM, the nation’s largest wholesale power market, have been hovering at elevated levels. The fair market value for a 10-year as-generated solar PPA reached $83.01/MWh on Oct. 15, just shy of a 12-month high, data from Pexapark showed.

For his part, LaCerte holds deep ties to the Trump administration, having been listed as a contributor to the conservative "Project 2025" plan and serving as the White House senior advisor to the Office of Personnel Management. In his congressional testimony, LaCerte said his priorities are reducing the “administrative burden” and removing delays in federal reviews.

FERC is an independent agency that has conducted its business in a largely bipartisan fashion. Both Swett and LaCerte have pledged to uphold the agency’s independence and to remain neutral toward all generating technologies in policy decisions. But that long-standing independence could be eroded as the White House has taken steps to exert control over the agency, including by a requirement for FERC to clear decisions with the Office of Management and Budget.

The prospect of a less independent FERC has rattled industry stakeholders, including environmental groups.

“From a lack of regulatory experience to political and industry affiliations that threaten the independence of FERC, both commissioners raise major red flags for the future of energy consumers in this country,” the Sierra Club said in an Oct. 7 statement, opposing the nominees.

Any policies out of FERC that are adverse to renewables would build on what the administration has already done as part of his "energy dominance" agenda. Since taking office the Trump administration issued a now-contested stop-work order to block Ørsted's offshore Revolution Wind project, and pulled a federal loan guarantee for the$11-billion Grain Belt Express power line, an interstate transmission line critical for wind project developments in the central U.S. All of this has come on top of passage of legislation to abruptly phase out federal subsidies for wind and solar.

LaCerte’s term expires June 30, 2026, and Swett’s term ends June 30, 2030.

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