President Barack Obama named a former regulator to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Tony Clark will become the fifth member of the five-member FERC board. He has been a senior member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission since 2000 and is the immediate past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
FERC is the national government agency will control over all energy moving across state lines, including electricity, natural gas and oil. FERC granted approval to the proposed $4.7 billion merger of Hartford-based Northeast Utilities and Boston-based NStar.
The five FERC commissioners set policy for the organization and are all appointed by the president. In addition to Clark, the four other members are Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, an energy lawyer favoring renewable energy; Philip Moeller, a former energy policy advisor to the U.S. Senate; John Norris, a former electric grid administrator in Iowa, and Cheryl A. LaFleur, the former acting CEO of New England electric utility National Grid.
