Biography:
Immediate past Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Jon Wellinghoff is an internationally recognized energy law attorney and clean tech energy expert. He is co-chair of the Stoel Rives energy team. He consults internationally to energy policy leaders in the U.S., China, Australia, and Europe, and has clients with interests worldwide. Domestically he is participating in the New York REV process initiated to reform the electric utility distribution model.
Jon recently co-authored with one of his clients an article published in the Public Utilities Fortnightly describing a new structure for operating an electric distribution utility incorporating an independent system operator to better allow for the deployment of distributed energy resources like solar PV, energy efficiency and demand response to end use consumers. This market based model is patterned after the independent system operators or "ISO's" created by FERC in wholesale electric markets. He served as General Counsel at the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (1998-2000), and served two terms as the State of Nevada's first Advocate for Customers of Public Utilities.