Colette D. Honorable

Partner, Reed Smith Energy and Natural Resources Group

Colette is a member of Reed Smith’s Energy and Natural Resources Group resident in the Washington, D.C. office. Colette is a highly regarded thought leader and practitioner in domestic and international energy sectors. She recently served as Commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Colette joined the FERC from the Arkansas Public Service Commission (PSC), where she led as Chairman from January 2011-January 2015 and was charged with ensuring safe, reliable and affordable retail electric service..

Colette is past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, where she focused on pipeline safety, reliability, resilience, fuel diversity, and workforce diversity. She has testified before Congress on multiple occasions on a range of energy issues. Prior to joining the Arkansas PSC, Colette served as chief of staff to the Arkansas Attorney General and as a member of the governor's cabinet as Executive Director of the Arkansas Workforce Investment Board.

Colette is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution's Energy and Climate Initiative; a Senior Fellow with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a member of the Global Advisory Board for the Energy Futures Initiative; a member of the EPRI Board of Directors; a board member of Summit Utilities, Inc.); an Ambassador for the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Initiative, an effort co-led by the U.S. Department of Energy and the MIT Energy Initiative formed under the auspices of the International Clean Energy Ministerial.

She has also held previous appointments to the National Petroleum Council and served as Chair of the Department of Transportation's Joint Technical Advisory Committee for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. A native of Arkansas, she is a graduate of the University of Memphis and received a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.