In this episode we spoke with Colette D.
Honorable on Bridging the Energy Gap.
Colette Honorable
When Commissioner Colette D. Honorable was a high school student,
she dreamed of living in Dallas, Texas, or Memphis, Tennessee. A
career in law or the energy sector was not on her radar. Her dreams
were nothing compared to her reality, however. She was nominated
to be one of five commissioners’ at the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission by President Barack Obama. She was unanimously
confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December, 2014. She is only the third
African-American to hold this position. Honorable sits down with
DyNAMC to share her journey and the future of the energy industry.
C
olette Honorable was nominated to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission by President
Barack Obama in August 2014, and unanimously
confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December 2014
for a term that expires in June 2017. A lawyer,
Commissioner Honorable came to FERC from the
Arkansas Public Service Commission, where she
served since October 2007, and led the Commission
as Chairman since January 2011.
Commissioner Honorable began her career at Legal
Services, and worked as a consumer protection
attorney, civil litigation, and as a Medicaid fraud
special prosecutor before serving as chief of staff to
then-Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe.
As Chairman of the Arkansas PSC, Commissioner
Honorable oversaw an agency charged with ensuring
safe, reliable and affordable retail electric service. She
oversaw rate case proceedings, plant acquisitions,
transmission buildout applications, regional
transmission efforts and other transactions to ensure
the reliability of the Arkansas grid and diversity in
generation in the state. During her tenure, Arkansas
led the South and Southeast in comprehensive
energy efficiency programs, and electric rates were
consistently among the lowest in the nation.
Honorable is a past president of the National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
(NARUC). In that role, she represented NARUC on
an array of issues ranging from pipeline safety to
reliability, resilience, and diversity of both energy
supply and the workforce. She testified before
Congress on multiple occasions and advocated for
infrastructure development to ensure safe, clean,
reliable, and affordable utility services. She also
chaired the Association’s Pipeline Safety Task Force
and its Anybody Can Serve, So Let’s Conserve energy
efficiency campaign.
A native of Arkansas, Honorable is a graduate of the
University of Memphis and received a Juris Doctor from
the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.