Edison Electric Institute President Dan Brouillette is stepping down less than a year after taking the helm at the electric utility lobbying group, as some in the energy community have grumbled about his leadership.
Brouillette, who previously served as Energy secretary under former President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2021, announced in a statement Monday that he would leave his post later this year. He was vague in describing his reasons for leaving, referring to a desire to “broaden my focus” in working on the domestic and international energy and security challenges that he has touched on.
He said the world “stands at a critical juncture,” with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and China’s ongoing aggression, while shifts in the federal government “are challenging the creativity that has defined American energy leadership and prosperity.”
“This profound shift compels me to broaden my focus to the overarching issues facing our global energy landscape,” he said, adding that he would leave later this year “so that I can spend my time engaging directly with world business and policy leaders on these existential challenges, and hopefully prevent this age of innovation from becoming an age of limitation.”
An EEI spokesperson did not respond to requests to elaborate on Brouillette’s reasons for leaving or his future plans. The position, as the top advocate for the nation’s investor-owned utilities, is one of the top policy jobs in Washington.
During his brief stint at EEI, Brouillette has spent much of his time advocating for permitting overhaul, warning that the nation’s energy appetite is outpacing its creaky infrastructure. He also indicated he would seek to protect the climate-focused Inflation Reduction Act from Republican attacks.
Reaction to the departure was mixed. While one member of EEI’s board of directors hailed Brouillette as an “asset,” others say he has struggled in the position.
A person involved in utility advocacy, granted anonymity to speak frankly about his interactions with the group, said Brouillette’s transition has not gone smoothly.
That person said the former Energy secretary expressed frustration with EEI staff and the group’s internal process, which involves building consensus among a broad range of utilities that are not always aligned on policy issues.
But the person was still surprised by the announcement, saying Brouillette appeared ready to forge ahead and was preparing to engage the next presidential administration.
A Republican energy industry lobbyist, granted anonymity to speak frankly, said many utility industry allies have been unhappy with Brouillette, explaining he has not been as communicative as they expected.
“For $8 million, most people return their clients’ calls,” the lobbyist said. The previous head of EEI, Tom Kuhn, made nearly $8 million in compensation in 2022, tax filings show, the highest pay of any major energy association executive.
EEI did not respond to requests for comment on those people’s statements.
Brouillette agreed to remain as a senior adviser to EEI through the end of 2025, the group said.
Some cheers for Dan
Maria Pope, the president of Portland General Electric and chair of EEI’s board of directors, hailed Brouillette’s leadership.
“Dan Brouillette’s experience and industry insights have been an asset to EEI and its member companies. Dan has worked to address the challenges facing U.S. electric companies,” she said in the statement. “We thank Dan for his service at EEI and look forward to his continued contributions to the future of American energy.”
Brouillette, 62, a former House staffer and Energy Department official under former President George W. Bush, was announced in August 2023 as the next EEI president, following Kuhn’s retirement announcement.
After his stint as Energy secretary, he led Sempra Infrastructure, a unit of Sempra that develops liquefied natural gas projects, renewable energy and other initiatives. Brouillette joined EEI later in 2023 and became president in January.
His appointment at EEI raised eyebrows among some advocates who feared he would move the industry into more partisan territory. Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” railed against renewable energy, and pushed for more production and use of fossil fuels.
Trump has also promised to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act, which has significant incentives for utilities, and Brouillette helped push initiatives like opposition to electric vehicle incentives, which EEI supports.
His appointment came as EEI was fighting EPA’s greenhouse gas limits for the power sector, a major climate initiative for the Biden administration. EEI sued to stop the greenhouse gas regulation, in a case that’s ongoing, but which brought scorn from Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
Brouillette took some public bipartisan actions as EEI president. He indicated he would not push the same priorities that he did under Trump, and pledged to help defend the Inflation Reduction Act against Republican attempts to roll it back.
Trump has promised to “rescind all unspent funds” from the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s major climate change law, as part of his efforts to “terminate” what he argues is the “green new scam.” The law includes many incentives that benefit the utility industry, such as a bevy of new tax breaks for renewable energy, money for EVs, and infrastructure and hydrogen programs.
Brouillette said at a Wall Street event that any rollbacks to the Inflation Reduction Act “would be largely at the margins, not at the heart of what was passed as the IRA.”
He has also said the Biden administration’s goal of a carbon-free electric grid by 2035 is not in reach.
Permitting a focus
Much of his public advocacy has been to lobby officials to overhaul the nation’s permitting policies. It’s a key priority for EEI, which seeks to ease the building of transmission and distribution lines, as well as new power generation of various types.
“From my experience as the secretary of Energy, it became very clear to me that we know how to produce energy here in the United States, be it oil, be it gas, be it nuclear power, renewable energy … we know how to produce energy,” he said at an Oct. 18 event organized by the Energy Bar Association.
“Our challenge in this country is actually getting the product to market. It’s moving the electron to where the load is. It’s developing the transmission towers. It’s developing the distribution infrastructure that is needed to move the product to market, and we see that all across our country.”
He took his lobbying to both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, with dire warnings that with the growth of artificial intelligence and other big energy-hungry industries, the country will soon be facing a shortfall in its energy production.
“If we’re not careful, what that’s going to mean in 10 to 20 years — because it takes a long time to build out these facilities — we’re going to be short,” he said at an event on the sidelines of the RNC.
“We could be short as much as 30 to 35, perhaps as much as 40 gigawatts of power on the electricity side in 10 to 20 years. And that’s something that we have to address as a nation, and we have to start doing it today.”
EEI has been generally supportive of congressional permitting measures, and said it has worked closely with lawmakers in both parties on it.
Brouillette said at the Energy Bar Association event that the group had some issues with recent legislation from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee leaders Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) around cost allocation for transmission lines, but he welcomed the effort nonetheless.
“The fact that they’ve taken this on and moved it through an important Senate committee, I applaud that,” he said.
Reporters Benjamin Storrow, Kelsey Brugger and Carlos Anchondo contributed.
