James P. Danly ’13 has been named chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Danly has served as one of five FERC commissioners, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, since March 2020.
Before being appointed to the FERC commission, Danly had served since 2017 as general counsel for FERC, where he directed the agency’s 200-lawyer Office of the General Counsel, oversaw the commission’s appellate litigation, and provided legal counsel to the commission’s chairmen and commissioners.
“FERC’s role as a regulator, though narrow, is profound,” Danly stated in his statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which is chaired by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), after being nominated to FERC. “The importance of the work the commission does in regulating electric and gas rates, permitting infrastructure, protecting the reliability of the bulk electric system, and overseeing our electric markets cannot be overstated. Every aspect of American life is touched by the work done at the commission.”
Before joining FERC as general counsel, Danly practiced with the energy regulation and litigation group at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. Prior to that, he was a law clerk to Judge Danny Boggs at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Danly is a U.S. Atrmy veteran who served two tours in Iraq, with an infantry company in Baghdad and then on staff at Multi-National Force-Iraq, receiving a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He attended Vanderbilt Law School as a Thomas W. Beasley Scholar. He earned his undergraduate degree at Yale Unviersity.
