Shelley Fidler will join the DC Bar Association's Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Community and the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) in conversation with the new General Counsel of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Matthew Christiansen. Mr. Christiansen will also be joined by Praveen Kathpal, the Vice President of New Business at AES, and Keturah Brown, Associate at Reed Smith LLP.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent federal agency with authority over national energy markets, including regulating the interstate transmission and wholesale sales of electricity and natural gas, approving the siting of interstate natural gas pipelines and storage facilities, licensing hydroelectric projects, and setting mandatory standards for the reliability of the interstate electric transmission system.

On February 1, 2021, FERC Chairman Richard Glick named longtime FERC staffer Matthew Christiansen as the Commission's new General Counsel (GC). Before becoming FERC's GC, Mr. Christiansen served as a Legal Advisor to Chairman Glick and as a member of the GC's Office. He was also an Energy Law and Policy Fellow at NYU Law School’s Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law. His academic work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Texas Law Review, and the Energy Law Journal.

Mr. Christiansen will join us for a wide-ranging discussion of FERC's priorities on issues of interest to energy and environmental practitioners, including grid reliability and modernization, decarbonization, environmental justice, and the federal-state balance.

Register for the event here!