Energy Jobs: Wheeler at EPA, Southern Co.‘s Beattie Retires, and Top Trump Energy Aide Exits

We begin this week’s Energy Jobs column inside the Beltway.

The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Andrew Wheeler to become second in command at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Wheeler was at the EPA more than 20 years ago, and spent most of the past decade lobbying for various corporations, including coal companies. The move is particularly disconcerting to environmentalists as EPA chief Scott Pruitt remains under fire and Wheeler would be running the department if Pruitt leaves.

Democrat and Republican insiders discussed the possibility of an EPA shakeup, and what it could mean for energy and environmental policy, in the first episode of GTM's new podcast Political Climate.

In another move between lobbying and top spots in the Trump administration, E&E News reports that Mike Catanzaro, who has been the chief White House staffer on domestic energy and environmental policy, is leaving to rejoin lobbying firm CGCN Group. Also at CGCN, Rosemarie Calabro Tully recently joined as managing director of strategic communications. She was previously the director of public affairs at the National Biodiesel Board.

Marshall Murphy is also making a move in D.C. as the new VP of corporate communications for Pepco Holdings, covering Pepco in D.C. and Maryland, as well as Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric. He was previously at Exelon as director of communications. Christina Harper joined Pepco as a communications manger and Tasha Jamerson also joined Pepco as senior communications specialist and spokesperson.

Also in Washington, Axios reports that Jack Gerard will step down later this year from the American Petroleum Institute, the trade association for America’s oil and gas companies. He will not pop up somewhere else in the U.S. Capitol, but will instead head to Salt Lake City to serve as a General Authority Seventy in the Mormon church.

We already reported that Travis Fisher is leaving DOE, but E&E has an update that he is headed to FERC, where he will serve as an adviser to Chairman Kevin McIntyre. FERC has its hands full as it grapples with distributed energy resources, including allowing storage to play in wholesale markets and working with utilities to understand what they need to better incorporate DERs.

South of Washington, D.C., Art Beattie, EVP and CFO of Southern Company, has announced his retirement. Andrew Evans will take over the role, and Kimberly Greene will move up to take over for Evans as chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company Gas. Stan Connally will take Greene's position as EVP of operations for Southern Company while he continues to serve as chairman, president and CEO of Gulf Power. Beattie spent more than 40 years with Southern Company, working his way up from his start in 1976 as a junior accountant with Alabama Power. 

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Juhl Energy founder and CEO Dan Juhl has retired, although he will remain an adviser and chairman of the board. His successor has not been named yet.

Microgrid-as-a-service company Enchanted Rock has hired Allan Schurr as its chief commercial officer. Schurr joins Enchanted Rock from Edison Energy, where he was the founding president. He was also previously VP for IBM's Energy and Utilities division.

The Electric Power Research Institute has some new additions to its board, including Paula Gold-Williams, CEO of CPS Energy, John McAvoy, CEO of Consolidated Edison, Stan Connally, president and CEO of Gulf Power Company, and Douglas Esamann, VP of energy solutions for Duke Energy.

EPC firm JE Dunn is expanding its renewables team as it grows across the U.S. Bill Hargett joined as director of business development for the renewables team in January, Mathew Ricci is now director of pre-construction services and Kasperi Pohjonen is engineering director for the West region.

Lee Krevat has joined Pxise Energy Solutions as a director. The role is in addition to his day job as director of new ventures at Sempra Renewables. Pxise is a joint venture between OSIsoft and Sempra that can coordinate DERs on the grid.

James Andrus has joined utility consulting firm Bridge Energy Group as VP. He was previously VP of global sales and marketing at Gridco Systems.

After 14 years at NREL, Suzanne Tegen is now the new assistant director at the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. At NREL she managed the Technology, Engineering, and Deployment Group.

Ian Howard has left BuiltSpace, where he was VP of marketing, to be commercial director of sustainable finance solutions at Sustainalytics, which provides research and analysis to investors seeking to develop responsible investment strategies.

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As always, please send clean energy jobs moves to tips@greentechmedia.