FirstEnergy Names Martin L. Hall Vice President, Energy Policy
Posted on: Wednesday, 1 April 2009, 14:00 CDT
Daniel V. Steen, Vice President, Environmental, and Thomas M. Welsh, Senior Vice President, Elect to Retire
AKRON, Ohio, April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) today announced that Martin L. Hall, former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), has been named vice president, Energy Policy, for the company, effective April 13, 2009. Hall will be responsible for oversight and strategic direction related to FirstEnergy's response to federal and state energy policies. This will include overseeing the Environmental Department, currently headed by Daniel V. Steen, vice president, who has elected to retire June 1, 2009, after 43 years with the company. Thomas M. Welsh, senior vice president and assistant to the CEO, also has elected to retire effective May 1, 2009, after 32 years with the company.
"We are pleased to welcome Marty to our leadership team," said Anthony J. Alexander, president and chief executive officer of FirstEnergy. "He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience at a time when our industry is expected to face new and changing environmental policies and regulations. At the same time, we will miss Dan's and Tom's wise counsel and decades of knowledge and dedicated service. Their contributions to our company have been significant."
As chief of staff of CEQ, Hall oversaw the division of the White House that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other administration offices to develop environmental and energy policies and initiatives. Prior to that, Hall was deputy chief of staff for the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. Hall is a Findlay, Ohio, native and earned a degree in communications with a minor in political science from Northwestern University in 1988.
Steen began his career as a co-op engineer at FirstEnergy's Ohio Edison subsidiary in 1966, and held a variety of engineering and management positions, including assistant plant superintendent at the R.E. Burger Plant near Shadyside, Ohio. He was promoted to director of the Environmental Department in 1997 and to his current position in 2005. Steen earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and a law degree from The University of Akron. He also is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University's Advanced School of Power Systems Engineering, and attended the Program for Executive Development at Northwestern University's Graduate School of Management. Steen is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Western Reserve and is an Eagle Scout.
Welsh began his career with FirstEnergy subsidiary Ohio Edison, as director of Advertising in 1977. He was promoted to manager of Communications in 1989, vice president of Communications in 2001 and senior vice president of External Affairs in 2004. He was named to his current position in 2007 and is responsible for working as a liaison between FirstEnergy and community and national organizations, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Council on Competitiveness and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Welsh earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Kent State University in 1973. He completed the Public Utility Executive Program at the University of Michigan in 1990 and was named an Honorary Alumnus of The University of Akron in 2004. He is a member of the National Alumni Board of Kent State University and serves on the Professional Advisory Board of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross of Summit and Portage Counties, the Playhouse Square Foundation and the Summit County Historical Society.
FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. Its seven electric utility operating companies comprise the nation's fifth largest investor-owned electric system, based on 4.5 million customers served, within a 36,100-square-mile area of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and its generation subsidiaries control more than 14,000 megawatts of capacity.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding our management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry and legislative and regulatory changes affecting how generation rates will be determined following the expiration of existing rate plans in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the impact of the PUCO's regulatory process on the Ohio Companies associated with the ESP and MRO filings, including any resultant mechanism under which the Ohio Companies may not fully recover costs (including, but not limited to, the costs of generation supply procured by the Ohio Companies, Regulatory Transition Charges and fuel charges), or the outcome of any competitive generation procurement process in Ohio, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the continued ability of FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other charges or to recover increased transmission costs, maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, revised environmental requirements, including possible greenhouse gas emission regulations, the potential impacts of the U.S. Court of Appeals' July 11, 2008 decision requiring revisions to the CAIR rules and the scope of any laws, rules or regulations that may ultimately take their place, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures needed to, among other things, implement the AQC Plan (including that such amounts could be higher than anticipated or that certain generating units may need to be shut down) or levels of emission reductions related to the Consent Decree resolving the NSR litigation or other potential regulatory initiatives, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes (including, but not limited to, the revocation of necessary licenses or operating permits and oversight) by the NRC (including, but not limited to, the Demand for Information issued to FENOC on May 14, 2007), the timing and outcome of various proceedings before the PUCO (including, but not limited to the distribution rate cases and the generation supply plan filing for the Ohio Companies and the successful resolution of the issues remanded to the PUCO by the Ohio Supreme Court regarding the RSP and the RCP, including the recovery of deferred fuel costs), Met-Ed's and Penelec's transmission service charge filings with the PPUC, the continuing availability of generating units and their ability to operate at or near full capacity, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals (including employee workforce initiatives), the ability to improve electric commodity margins and to experience growth in the distribution business, the changing market conditions that could affect the value of assets held in FirstEnergy's nuclear decommissioning trusts, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause it to make additional contributions sooner, or in an amount that is larger than currently anticipated, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with FirstEnergy's financing plan and the cost of such capital, changes in general economic conditions affecting the company, the state of the capital and credit markets affecting the company, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect FirstEnergy's access to financing or its costs and increase its requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, letters of credit and other financial guarantees, the continuing decline of the national and regional economy and its impact on FirstEnergy's major industrial and commercial customers, issues concerning the soundness of financial institutions and counterparties with which FirstEnergy does business, and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in its SEC filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
Source: PR Newswire
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