US Senate Energy Committee Approves Final FERC Nominees
The US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved President Donald Trump’s final two nominations to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
If the two nominees, Republican Kevin McIntyre as commissioner and chair, and Democrat Richard Glick as commissioner, are confirmed by a full Senate vote, FERC will have a full quorum of commissioners for the first time since Trump’s inauguration.
The committee approvals were endorsed enthusiastically by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), which has been pressing the Trump administration to fill the FERC quorum for several months.
The lack of a quorum has constrained FERC's ability to expedite new project approvals, including for US LNG export plants.
“IPAA applauds the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and its prompt approval of the nominations of Kevin McIntyre and Rich Glick to fill the remaining two seats at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,” Susan Ginsberg, vice president, crude oil and natural gas regulatory affairs for IPAA, said in a statement. “A full commission will…be better equipped to issue orders that can withstand the legal onslaught from groups that use every tactic, including opposition to pipelines, to keep America’s natural gas resources in the ground.”
McIntyre, who will take over from acting FERC chair Neil Chatterjee, was nominated in July. He is co-head of the energy practice at Jones Day, a global law firm that has sent several attorneys to the Trump administration, and has represented energy industry clients on matters ranging from compliance and enforcement to trading, exports and marketing. He was nominated for two terms, extending to 2023.
Glick, meanwhile, was nominated in June for terms extending through 2022. At the time of his nomination, he was serving as Democratic general counsel for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Formerly, he was vice president, government affairs, for the US renewables subsidiary of Spanish power group Iberdrola, and before that director of government affairs for PacificCorp, an electric utility serving customers in six western and northwestern states. Between 1998 and 2001, he was policy advisor to Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson in the Clinton administration.
If McIntyre and Glick are confirmed, FERC leadership will consist of three Republicans, McIntyre, Chatterjee and Robert Powelson, and two Democrats, Glick and Cheryl LaFleur, whose appointment extends to June 2019.
Dale Lunan