Join WIRES for a discussion on the upcoming anniversary of the Northeast blackout of 2003, the largest blackout event in North American history. This retrospective on the event will feature comments from energy-industry veterans who were responsible for dealing with and responding to the blackout when it happened. Hear about what lessons were learned from the blackout, as well as what it can teach us about the electric transmission system of today.

Speakers

Hon. Joseph Kelliher, former FERC Chairman

Richard Dewey, President & CEO of NY ISO

Hon. William Flynn, Partner, Harris Beach PLLC

Larry Gasteiger, Executive Director, WIRES (Moderator)

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

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Join WIRES for a discussion on Sept. 29th at 10am ET with Jignasa Gadani – Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Jignasa will discuss the important work of her office in supporting FERC’s recent major policy efforts.

Speaker

Jignasa Gadani is the Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. She formerly held the position of Acting Director of that office.

Prior to joining the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, Ms. Gadani served from 2010-2014 as the Director of the East Division in FERC’s Office of Energy Market Regulation. Ms. Gadani has held several other positions at the Commission, including as an attorney advisor in the Office of the General Counsel’s Energy Markets Division from 2001-2006 and 2009-2010, and as a Legal Advisor to Commissioner Philip D. Moeller from 2006-2009. During law school, Ms. Gadani also worked at the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Ms. Gadani earned a B.A. from DePaul University and a J.D., with a Certificate in Environmental and Energy Law, from Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

The post September 2022 Webinar – FERC OEPI Office appeared first on Wires Group.

Join WIRES for a webinar with the Director of FERC’s recently-established Office of Public Participation, Elin Katz. Elin will discuss the work of this new Office within FERC, and offer her thoughts on how increased public participation can help the Commission carry out its mission.

Speaker

Elin Swanson Katz serves as the inaugural Director of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s newly formed Office of Public Participation (OPP), which was established in 2021 to assist the public with Commission proceedings. As Director, Elin leads a growing OPP team that provides direct outreach and education to the public to facilitate greater understanding of Commission processes and support broader participation in matters before the Commission. OPP serves as a liaison for environmental justice communities, Tribal members, landowners, consumer advocates, and other historically underrepresented stakeholders, and responds to inquiries and requests for administrative and technical assistance from members of the public.

Elin previously served as Consumer Counsel for the State of Connecticut, as well as President of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates. She was also the VP of Utilities for Tilson, a technology company that builds telecommunications infrastructure, including broadband and 5G technology.

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

The post June 2022 Webinar – FERC Office of Public Participation appeared first on Wires Group.

Join WIRES for a discussion with Montina Cole, Senior Counsel for Environmental Justice and Equity at FERC.

The dialogue will center on FERC’s recent initiatives in the EJE space, and Montina will discuss her background and role at FERC as well as her perspective on how environmental justice issues play into transmission planning and development. The webinar will also include a time for Q&A with Montina.

Speaker

Montina Cole joined FERC in June 2021, and serves as Senior Counsel for Environmental Justice and Equity.

Montina Cole, a seasoned executive and attorney with nearly three decades of energy law experience, was the Principal of Jai Green Consulting LLC and the Law Office of Montina Cole, where she worked at the intersection of climate policy, racial equity and resilience, providing clients with holistic tools and solutions for sustainability.

Cole previously served as Senior Attorney in the Climate & Clean Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she pursued transformational shifts in utility industry regulation, managed advocacy on reform of FERC’s gas pipeline review and environmental justice policy, worked with stakeholders on EPA’s Clean Power Plan and helped lead an initiative to integrate racial equity considerations into the organization’s advocacy work. She also spent many years in energy practice at several law firms, where she concentrated on energy industry regulation and represented state regulators, electric cooperatives and regional transmission organizations. She also served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Cole earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, and her Bachelor of Arts in political science, cum laude, from Washburn University. She is a certified Integral Yoga instructor and a GreenFaith fellow. She and her spouse Shireen live in Washington, D.C.

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

The post June 2022 Webinar – FERC Environmental Justice & Equity appeared first on Wires Group.

An opportunity to hear from Senator Martin Heinrich about his current priorities in the Senate, and thoughts on how to incentivize the construction of transmission that will be needed to meet ambitious climate goals.

Speaker

Elected in 2012, Martin Heinrich is a United States Senator for New Mexico. Heinrich serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources, Appropriations, Intelligence, and Joint Economic Committees.

With a background in engineering, Heinrich brings a unique perspective to the Senate, where he is focused on creating the jobs of the future and confronting the climate crisis. He is a strong advocate for working families, a staunch ally of Indian Country, and a champion for New Mexico’s public lands and growing clean energy economy.  

Senator Heinrich’s full bio is available on his Senate website.

This event is free of charge and open to WIRES member companies and their employees only.

The post May 2022 Webinar – Priorities for Improving Transmission Planning appeared first on Wires Group.

Join WIRES for a discussion with Representative Sean Casten about renewable energy, transmission development for the future, and the role of Congress alongside regulatory bodies like FERC in helping to advance and modernize the United States’ energy infrastructure.

Speaker

Sean Casten is a scientist, clean energy entrepreneur and CEO, and now a Member of Congress representing the western suburbs of Chicago. Congressman Casten has dedicated his life to fighting climate change, and he draws upon his previous private sector experience in Congress to craft market-based solutions to reduce emissions while creating jobs and spurring economic growth. Casten serves on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and is the Vice Chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets. He also serves as Co-Chair on the New Democrat Coalition Climate Change Task Force.

Rep. Casten has a Master of Engineering Management and a Master of Science in Biochemical Engineering from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth, he did fundamental research in thermophilic fermentation technology to produce cellulosic ethanol and engineering analyses of integrated ethanol, heat and power plants. 

Casten worked as a clean energy consultant and manager at Arthur D. Little, then served as the president and CEO of Turbosteam Corporation, which focused on utilizing energy recycling technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by generating heat and power from previously wasted energy. In 2006, Casten co-founded Recycled Energy Development (RED), which focused on recycling wasted energy and converting energy facilities to cleaner, more economic uses. Casten was a founding chairman of the Northeast CHP Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy organization with a mission to advance policies that favor energy efficiency in the Northeast United States. 

You can follow Rep. Casten on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @RepSeanCasten.

This event is free of charge and open to WIRES member companies and their employees only.

The post November 2021 Webinar – Rep. Sean Casten appeared first on Wires Group.

Janet Sena, Senior VP of Policy and External Affairs at NERC, will address attendees about the topic of reliability and NERC’s recent and upcoming work to improve grid reliability.

Speaker

Janet L. Sena joined NERC, where she currently serves as senior vice president, External Affairs, in January 2010 with more than 25 years’ experience in state and federal work in the energy, environment, and economic development arena. Prior to joining NERC, she served as vice president for TECO Energy’s federal affairs office. She was responsible for reviewing and evaluating legislative and administrative policies, identifying their impact on the company and its subsidiaries, and devising a strategy for the successful advocacy and resolution of those issues. Mrs. Sena opened TECO’s first Washington office and developed its legislative team, including consultants, managed its budget, and advised the company’s political action committee.

This event is free of charge and open to the public.

The post September 2021 Webinar – Janet Sena, Senior VP External Affairs at NERC appeared first on Wires Group.

August 17, 2021 at 3 pm Eastern / 2 pm Central

WIRES and the Midwestern Governors Association (MGA) are teaming up to co-host this webinar, which will be part of a series of webinars the MGA will host throughout 2021 to focus on energy issues of importance for the region.

The topic of this webinar is the recent FERC advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR), FERC is seeking comment on the potential need for reforms or revisions to existing regulations to improve the electric regional transmission planning and cost allocation and generator interconnection processes. This information session will take a deeper look at the main issues at hand and explore what it could mean for the Midwest and the electric grid.

SPEAKERS

Dan Scripps, Chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission

Nina Plaushin, Vice President, Regulatory and Federal Affairs, ITC

Eric Vandenberg, Deputy Director, Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, Federal Electricity Regulatory Commission (FERC)

MODERATOR

Larry Gasteiger, Executive Director, WIRES

The post August Webinar – The FERC ANOPR and What it Means for the Midwest appeared first on Wires Group.

Join us for comments from and discussion with Matt Christiansen, FERC’s General Counsel.

Speaker

Prior to being named General Counsel, Matt Christiansen served as a Legal Advisor to Chairman Glick. He joined then-Commissioner Glick’s office in 2017 from the Commission’s Office of the General Counsel. Before joining Commission staff, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Stephen F. Williams on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Hon. Jesse M. Furman on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. 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 or is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, the Texas Law Review and the Energy Law Journal.

This event is free of charge and open to WIRES member companies and their employees only.

The post June Webinar – Matt Christiansen, FERC’s General Counsel appeared first on Wires Group.

Join us for remarks from and Q&A with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Ranking Member on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Rep. McMorris Rodgers is a noted advocate for hydropower, and has sponsored several items of legislation to help bring clean, reliable energy into the grid.

Speaker

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers represents the 5th district of Washington State in the U.S. House of Representatives, which encompasses the eastern portion of Washington state, and includes Spokane, the second largest city in Washington. Rep. McMorris Rodgers was elected to the House in 2004, and served as Chair of the House Republican Conference from 2012 to 2018, a position which made her the fourth highest-ranking Republican, and the highest ranking female Republican in the House of Representatives. Rep. McMorris Rodgers currently serves as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She is an advocate on veterans and military families issues, agriculture, hydropower, forestry, healthcare, disabilities, and federal spending issues.

This event is free of charge and open to WIRES member companies and their employees only.

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