Former FERC Chairman appointed Duke University Senior Fellow

The Duke University Energy Initiative and Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions have jointly appointed Norman C. Bay to a three-year term as a non-resident senior fellow.

Until early 2017, Bay was Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, having led the independent federal agency in its jurisdiction over the U.S. wholesale natural gas and electricity markets, as well as interstate natural gas and oil pipelines. Bay is now a partner at the international law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, LLP, where he serves as head of the firm’s Energy Regulatory and Enforcement Group.

As a non-resident senior fellow at Duke, Bay will serve as an informal advisor on the work and interests of both the Nicholas Institute and the Energy Initiative. Bay will work with Duke faculty and staff on a range of projects, focusing on the evolution of electric utilities, including consideration of changing business models, regulatory structures, and technologies

“We are delighted at the prospect of working with Norman on critical issues shaping the future of energy,” said Brian C. Murray, director of the Energy Initiative and a faculty affiliate of the Nicholas Institute. “The entire Duke community will benefit from his deep expertise in legal and regulatory issues affecting the power sector, as well as his experience as a public official operating at the highest levels of energy policymaking. Norman’s advice and involvement will undoubtedly further advance our efforts to establish Duke as a premier university for exploring solutions to current and future energy challenges.”

Prior to becoming a commissioner and then chairman of FERC, Bay directed the agency’s Office of Enforcement, where he enforced FERC's regulations and oversaw investigations, audits, and market oversight, surveillance, and analytics.

“Norman presided over the main government overseer of the power sector at a time that the industry entered transformative change,” said Tim Profeta, director of Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. “As we consider how that change can help us achieve our economic and environmental objectives, Norman’s knowledge and experience will help us target the most impactful strategies to do so.”

Bay is a former professor of law at University of New Mexico School of Law. For more than a decade prior, he worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in Albuquerque, as both an assistant U.S. Attorney and then as U.S. attorney for the district of New Mexico.

He is a graduate of Dartmouth College (AB’82) and Harvard University (JD’86).