Steven Wellner currently serves as the Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner Judy Chang at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), where he advises her regarding Western wholesale power markets and transmission issues, the Commission’s market-based rate and corporate programs, and the Commission’s reliability and enforcement work. 

Since joining FERC in 2012, he has held a number of other positions across the agency, including: (1) from April 2014 through July 2019, as a Legal Advisor and Chief of Staff to former Chairman and Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur; (2) from July 2019 through June 2022, as the Director of the Division of Electric Power Regulation-West, within the Commission’s Office of Energy Market Regulation; (3) from June through December 2022, as a Legal Advisor and Chief of Staff to Chairman Rich Glick; (4) in August 2017, as a transition advisor to Chairman Neil Chatterjee; and (5) as an Attorney-Advisor in the Commission’s Office of General Counsel.  In those various capacities, he has advised agency leadership on virtually every aspect of the Commission’s work. 

Before coming to FERC in June 2012, he worked in private practice, largely representing competitive power developers.  Mr. Wellner received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2007, and graduated in 2002 from Rice University with a double major in history and political science.