Naming Democrats to head the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and a key staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Biden administration has move quickly to solidify it power over energy and environment regulatory bodies.
Biden promoted Rich Glick at FERC, which was not a surprise. The January FERC meeting was the final for the short term of James Danly, who had been FERC general counsel before the Trump administration, late in its tenure, named him chairman. The promotion of Danly accompanied the ouster of Republican Neil Chatterjee as chairman. Chatterjee was a former energy aide to then Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
The demotion of Chatterjee reflected both some administration disagreement with his policy views, and the rift between Trump and McConnell. It was apparently long-standing but only surfaced in recent weeks, following the Trump-incited riot in the Capitol and the president’s false claims that he actually won the November presidential election.
In recent weeks, the ebullient Chatterjee and Glick had become allies at FERC on several issues, and opposed Danly. Chatterjee congratulated Glick on his elevation to chairman. Chatterjee’s term ends June 30, giving the Biden administration the opportunity to replace him with a Democrat. Under law, FERC commissioners serve five-year staggered terms, with a majority is to match the party of the president.
Today, Glick and Allison Clements, a new commissioner, are the two Democrats on the usually non-partisan commission. Danly, Chatterjee, and Mark Christie are the incumbent Republicans.
While the Republican members of the FERC commission will still be in the majority, that likely will change when Chatterjee’s term expires. Trump appointed Glick to the FERC in 2017. He had been the chief counsel to the Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
At the NRC, Biden named Commissioner Christopher T. Hanson as the new chairman, replacing Christine Svinicki, who resigned effective Jan. 20. A Republican, she had been the longest serving NRC commissioner, having been appointed to the NRC in 2008. Trump named her to chair the NRC in 2017.
Svinicki’s departure gives the White House the opportunity to quickly name a Democratic nominee to fill the slot, although that may not be a priority for the new administration.
Glick’s promotion to chairman is likely to be more significant than Hanson’s at the NRC, as the nuclear agency has diminished in importance as the U.S. nuclear industry as continued its slow, seemingly inexorable decline. FERC, on the other hand, has become a center of important energy policy issues involving energy markets, renewable energy, and environmental issues surrounding natural gas pipelines’ global warming implications and the impact of liquid natural gas export terminals.
At the EPA, the administration named Dan Utech, a veteran Democratic staffer, as the agency’s chief of staff, pending the Senate approval of Michael Regan to be EPA administrator. Regan is head of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. In the interim, EPA’s Jane Nishida is acting administrator.
Utech was a White House advisor on climate and energy issues during the Obama years, and was a key staffer at the Department of Energy, working on climate issues. He had also advised Hillary Clinton when she was a New York senator.
–Kennedy Maize
kenmaize@gmail.com