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Biography
James John "Jim" Hoecker is a partner in the Washington D.C. office of Vinson & Elkins LLP. Jim practices in the firm's Energy Group. Prior to returning to private law practice, he served as Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He was a Member of the Commission from May 1993 until he was designated by President Clinton to chair the Commission on June 19, 1997. Jim departed federal service on January 18, 2001.
Jim's new practice at Vinson & Elkins is focused on emerging natural gas and wholesale electric markets and involves regulatory, transactional, and strategic work for companies adapting to and competing in the newly competitive energy markets. Jim and his colleagues specialize in matters affecting public utilities, pipeline certificate cases, hydroelectric relicensing, development of regional transmissions organizations, and corporate mergers and utility asset dispositions. His clients include investor-owned utilities, developers and owners of independent transmission projects, natural gas pipeline developers, as well as equity investors in the industry.
Jim once served on the legal staff of the FERC (1979-1988), where he was Assistant General Counsel for Gas and Oil Litigation, Assistant General Counsel for Rulemaking and Legislative Analysis, and a legal advisor to two Commissioners. As a staff member and later as Commissioner, he participated in initiating or implementing the Commission's most significant pro-competitive policies of the past 16 years, beginning with Order Nos. 436 and 436-A (natural gas pipeline open access) in 1985.
FERC Chairmanship
During his Chairmanship (1997-2001), Jim worked to prepare the Commission for its role in the digital economy and the competitive energy market environment of the 21st Century. He emphasized the benefits of competition for consumers and the importance of sustainable energy project development. Under Chairman Hoecker's direction, the Commission asserted leadership over wholesale power market restructuring, natural gas market reform, electric reliability issues, and environmental review and compliance in the hydropower project and gas pipeline areas. At his direction, the Commission's structure was revamped, its processes streamlined, its information technology commitment enhanced, and its regulatory technique made more open and collaborative. Jim's numerous speeches on these various energy-related subjects and his testimony before Congressional committees are available as a matter of record.
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Activities and Affiliations
- Member: Council, Section on Environment, Energy and Resources, American Bar Association, 2001-Present; Energy Bar Association; Board, IDEAS Foundation, Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets; Natural Gas Act Rate and Accounting Regulations Committee, Federal Energy Bar Association, 1992-1993; National Committee on U.S.-China Relations; National Council on Competition and the Electric Industry, 1994-2001
- Director: Allegheny Energy, 2001-2003 (Lead Director, 2003)
- Co-Chair: Energy Team, Clinton/Gore Campaign, 1992
- Presidential Transition Team: Natural Resources Cluster, Clinton/Gore Campaign, 1992
- Delegate: Clinton Administration Delegation to South Africa on Sustainable Energy and Empowerment, August 1995
- Trustee: Northland College (Wisconsin), 1989-2004
- Assistant Editor: Natural Resources and Environment Magazine (ABA), 1989-1993
- Practitioner-in-Residence: University of Tulsa College of Law, Fall 2001
- Author: "Foreword" to Electric Utility Restructuring: A Guide to the Competitive Era, 1997; "The NEPA Mandate and Federal Regulation of the Natural Gas Industry," 13 Energy Law Journal 265, 1992; "FERC Changes the Rules of the Game" [Order No. 636 Restructuring], Petroleum Economist, July 1992; "New State Restrictions on Gas and Oil Production: A Domestic OPEC?" Natural Resources & Environment Magazine (ABA Magazine), Summer 1992; "'Used and Useful': Autopsy of a Ratemaking Policy," 8 Energy Law Journal 303, 1987; "Joseph Priestley and the Idea of Progress," Enlightenment and Dissent, New York: Garland Press, 1987; "Joseph Priestley and Utilitarianism in the Age of Reason," Enlightenment and Dissent, 1984; "Exemptions from Part 1 of the Federal Power Act for Small Hydroelectric Power Projects," (Proceedings of) Water Power 81: An International Conference on Hydropower, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1981; "Section INS 3.39, Wisconsin Administrative Code: The Origins and Development of a Medicare Supplement Insurance Regulation," The Insurance Law Journal, February 1979
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Education and Professional Background
- Northland College, B.A., 1967
- University of Kentucky, M.A., 1970, Ph.D., 1975
- University of Wisconsin Law School, J.D., 1978
- Admitted to practice: Wisconsin, 1978; District of Columbia, 1988; U.S. Courts of Appeal (D.C. and Sixth Circuits), 1988; U.S. Supreme Court, 1988
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