Senate Committee Advances Biden’s Slate of FERC Nominees
WASHINGTON DC (06/04/2024) – The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee voted today to advance three Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) nominees, Democrats David Rosner and Judy Chang, and Republican Lindsay See. The nominees now await a vote before the full Senate.
Thomas Pyle, President of the American Energy Alliance, issued the following statement:
“The two candidates for President of the United States have vastly different visions for the future of our energy and electricity markets, and FERC will play a critical role in setting that direction. The Senate should wait until the voters have spoken before bringing these nominees to the floor. If the Senate does proceed before November, each nominee should clearly state their position on the discredited proposed pipeline policy statements advanced by departed Chairman Richard Glick and outgoing Commissioner Allison Clements and each nominee should be considered individually on their own merits.
Lindsay See is an accomplished attorney who is firmly grounded in free-market principles. As solicitor general for West Virginia, she successfully represented the state before the Supreme Court in the 2022 case West Virginia vs. EPA, which regulated the transition of power plants away from coal, oil, and natural gas. She should be given favorable consideration should her nomination proceed on the Senate floor.
David Rosner is an analyst at FERC who is currently on detail with the Democratic majority of the Senate Energy Committee under Senator Joe Manchin. While on paper he appears qualified to serve as a commissioner, we have no way of knowing whether he will pick up where former Chairman Richard Glick left off with respect to the future of natural gas pipeline policy at FERC. That should greatly concern the Senate.
Judy Chang, a former undersecretary of energy and climate solutions in Massachusetts, is an ideologue and an advocate for the failing net-zero climate agenda. In 2018, Chang wrongly predicted New England would move away from natural gas ‘within the next five years.’ She subsequently argued that it didn’t make sense to build natural gas pipelines. Her ideology has deprived people in Massachusetts access to affordable and reliable electricity. In March 2014, Massachusetts’ electricity rates were 41% higher than the national average, but after ten years of implementing the policies she has promoted, electricity rates are now 78% higher than the national average.
With electricity demand forecasting a sustained increase due to the ‘electrification of everything’ agenda of the Biden Administration, along with the growth of AI and associated data center capacity, now is the worst possible time to be interfering with the reliable functioning of the electricity system. Even Larry Fink, the Godfather of ESG, has reversed course and is calling for more dispatchable power. At no time should a FERC commissioner be pursuing ideological fixations like net-zero, but especially not now when additional stable and reliable capacity is desperately needed. Judy Chang should be rejected by the full Senate.”
AEA Experts Available For Interview On This Topic:
Additional Background Resources From AEA:
- The Challenges and Costs of Net-Zero and the Future of Energy
- America’s Electric Grid Is Not Ready for the Demand Explosion to Come
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