WASHINGTON, DC – Climate Leadership Council CEO Greg Bertelsen announced that the Council has hired Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Neil Chatterjee as a senior policy advisor.
“Neil Chatterjee is one of our nation’s leading energy markets experts and happens to be one of the most effective Republican energy policy strategists,” Bertelsen said. “We are delighted to partner with Chairman Chatterjee and draw on his deep expertise as we further develop and promote our carbon dividends plan. His tenure working on some of the most important energy policy initiatives over the last decades, both at FERC and for Republican leadership in Congress, will help us broaden support for our market-based climate solution.”
Chatterjee will draw on his deep experience to help the Council refine the details of its comprehensive policy initiative to price carbon emissions and return the revenues to all Americans. He will also work for Americans for Carbon Dividends, the Council’s advocacy arm, to promote this effort on Capitol Hill.
Chatterjee served as FERC Chairman from August 2017 to December 2017, and again from October 2018 to November 2020. During his tenure as chairman, he promoted carbon pricing by advancing a groundbreaking bipartisan Commission policy statement encouraging power grid operators to incorporate state carbon pricing policies into their markets. He also pushed forward landmark energy market reforms to remove barriers to energy storage resources and other emerging technologies. He served as a FERC commissioner until his term ended on August 30, 2021.
“I am extremely proud to join the Climate Leadership Council team to help bring Republicans to the table in support of a lasting and effective climate solution,” Chatterjee said. “An economy-wide carbon price is an essential component of a meaningful climate mitigation strategy. It will provide much-needed certainty to energy markets, which is utterly lacking under the current piecemeal approach to climate. The Council’s market-based approach will bolster the stability and reliability of energy markets, while unlocking a wave of innovation throughout the economy.”
Prior to his tenure at FERC, Chatterjee served as an advisor to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) working to pass major energy, highway and agriculture legislation. He previously worked for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and as an aide to House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-OH). He began his career in Washington, D.C. as a staff member on the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Chatterjee announced today that he will also join the Washington, DC office of Hogan Lovells as a policy advisor.
The Climate Leadership Council works with a diverse coalition of businesses, environmental, and opinion leaders to advance the four-part carbon dividends framework as the most cost-effective, equitable, and politically viable climate solution. Enacting the carbon dividends framework would unleash America’s full innovative capacity against climate change and cut emissions in half by 2035 on its own.