Regulatory Affairs news highlights: August 2025

 

Recent regulatory headlines we’re tracking include:

President Trump nominates David LaCerte to serve as FERC commissioner

President Donald Trump has nominated David LaCerte to serve as a FERC commissioner in the seat vacated by Willie Phillips’ resignation in April 2025. LaCerte would serve the remainder of former Chair Phillips’ term until June 30, 2026.

Currently, he serves as White House liaison and senior adviser to the director of the Office of Personnel Management. Previously, LaCerte served in the first Trump administration and held legal positions at private firms, the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

 

FERC Chair Mark Christie holds last open meeting before leaving commission

On July 24, FERC Chair Mark Christie participated in his last open FERC meeting before stepping down from the position. In early June, President Trump nominated Laura Swett, an energy regulatory attorney at Vinson & Elkins and former FERC attorney, to take Christie’s seat at FERC.

Christie provided remarks during the open meeting reflecting on his career in the energy industry and thanking his staff and fellow FERC commissioners. He also shared his thoughts on the importance of consumers and electricity prices.  He stated, “I hope that everybody who ever sits on this Commission always remembers those people’s wishes — the millions of people who pay the bills, struggle and worry about whether their lights come on or not.” A link to the webcast of this FERC meeting is available here.

 

DOE releases report on grid reliability and security

In early July, the Department of Energy (DOE) released its Report on Evaluating U.S. Grid Reliability and Security. The report warns of increasing power outages due to a growing mismatch between electricity demand and supply that is driven by retirements of fossil fueled generation, insufficient additions of new firm capacity, and load growth driven by data centers. This report is a response to President Trump’s executive order from April, which directed the DOE to create a uniform method of studying resource adequacy.

The report argues for “decisive intervention” to prevent the projected increase in power outages in the 2030s. The report uses a model based on NERC’s Interregional Transfer Capability Study, which uses time-correlated generation and outages based on historical data, and the model found the greatest projected shortfalls to be in PJM and ERCOT. Critics of the report argue that it exaggerates the risk of blackouts and undervalues the reliability contributions of wind, solar, and battery storage.

 

CISA, FBI, NSA, and Department of Defense issue fact sheet on cyber threats from Iran

On June 30, CISA, the FBI, the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3), and the National Security Agency (NSA) published a new fact sheet titled Iranian Cyber Actors May Target Vulnerable US Networks and Entities of Interest. The document discusses the increased geopolitical threat and need for increased vigilance for potential cyber activity against U.S. critical infrastructure by Iranian state-sponsored or affiliated threat actors. In an accompanying notice, the agencies state that they have not seen indications of a coordinated campaign of malicious cyber activity in the U.S. that can be attributed to Iran, but they stress that despite reports of a ceasefire, owners and operators of critical infrastructure organizations and other potentially targeted entities should review the fact sheet to learn more about the Iranian state-backed cyber threat and recommended mitigations to harden cyber defenses.

The fact sheet states that Iranian-affiliated cyber actors often exploit targets of opportunity based on the use of unpatched or outdated software with known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) or the use of default or common passwords on internet-connected accounts and devices. It also describes previous Iranian cyber campaigns, provides a list of recommended mitigation actions, and a list of resources on the Iranian threat and best practices in cyber security. The fact sheet is available here.