Pat Wood

Pat Wood is taking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc), of which he is chairman, back to school. Holding a day-long Ferc meeting on clearing in the energy industry, Wood hoped to raise the profile of clearing and credit and improve his own knowledge of financial energy markets. “It’s good to be able to ask a dumb question, because we’re not supposed to know that stuff,” he says, talking about Ferc’s traditional role as physical market regulator.

And Wood says the agency was “flat