As seen in E&E News
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The prospect of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Richard Glick losing his job by year’s end could derail policies critical for President Joe Biden’s clean energy and climate agenda.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin is “not comfortable” holding a hearing for Glick, Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon said Thursday, effectively killing the chairman’s chances of staying on the regulatory panel (Greenwire, Nov. 10).
Glick, a Democrat who joined FERC in 2017, had been nominated by Biden to lead the agency for another four years, pending approval by the Senate. His departure would mean that Democrats lose their majority on the five-person commission.
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Republicans were unlikely to support Glick’s nomination. Earlier this year, Senate ENR Republicans grilled Glick for alleged anti-fossil fuel FERC policies, including a draft proposal that would consider the climate emissions of natural gas infrastructure in permitting decisions (Energywire, March 4).
Glick had also been publicly criticized recently by the Institute for Energy Research, a conservative think tank. The group has accused him of having coordinated with the White House on a greenhouse gas emissions policy for natural gas pipelines, a charge Glick and others have said is unfounded.
Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, said he was “not surprised” to hear that Manchin would not hold a hearing for Glick. With a four-person commission, FERC could potentially “return to consensus-building,” Pyle said.
“FERC has and can function well with a four-person commission. It just requires that they seek consensus, as opposed to advancing a partisan agenda that’s not consistent with the current mission of FERC,” he said.
Glick declined to comment on possible communications with the White House, but he said he would “take it day by day” regarding his plans for the rest of the year at the commission.
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Read the full article here, at E&E News
Read documents uncovered by IER’s FOIA lawsuits against FERC here.
