Commissioner LaFleur Plans Departure From FERC
Cheryl A. LaFleur, a commissioner with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) since 2010, said January 31 she will not seek a third term as commissioner.
“While this is not the outcome I had hoped for, I feel very lucky to have served on Ferc for more than eight years (and counting),” she said in a statement. She did not provide clarification as to her “hoped for” outcome.
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LaFleur’s current term ends June 30, and she plans to stay at least until then, “and probably longer, depending on my future plans and the possible appointment of a successor,” she said.
“It has been a high honor to serve at the commission, and I love working here,” she added. “I have many people to thank for the opportunities I’ve had, and will certainly have more to say as I get closer to actually leaving.”
LaFleur was first nominated to Ferc by president Barack Obama in 2010, and was first sworn in on July 13, 2010. That term expired on June 30, 2014 and she was subsequently re-sworn to a second term on July 29, 2014. She served as acting chair of the commission twice – between November 2013 and July 2014 and again from January to August in 2017 – and as chair between July 2014 and April 2015.
She was named Woman of the Year in 2015 by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment.
Prior to joining the commission in 2010, LaFleur had more than 20 years’ experience as a leader in the electric and natural gas industry. She served as executive vice president and acting CEO of National Grid USA, responsible for the delivery of electricity to 3.4 million customers in the Northeast. She was also National Grid’s chief operating officer, president of its New England distribution companies and general counsel.
LaFleur began her career as an attorney at Ropes and Gray in Boston after receiving her degree in jurisprudence from Harvard Law School, where she edited the Harvard Law Review.
Pending new nominations from US president Donald Trump, Ferc will be reduced to just three commissioners after LaFleur’s departure, which comes in the wake of the death in early January of former Ferc chair Kevin McIntyre.