The health of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Kevin McIntyre could determine the course the agency takes in the coming weeks and months. McIntyre, who had surgery for brain cancer in Mid-2017, before his nomination to head FERC, was unable to attend today’s open commission meeting. He said, in a statement read by Commissioner Neil Chatterjee’ that “ongoing recovery prevents me from being here.”
It was the first commission meeting that McIntyre, 57, had missed since he took the FERC gavel last December. McIntyre’s statement on Thursday said, “While my health issue has impacted my mobility, it has not impacted my ability to get the commission’s work done.” He then voted for all of the items on the commission’s consent agenda for the meeting.
McIntyre revealed his brain cancer diagnosis and surgery last March, as E&E News was preparing to report the story. At that time, he said in a statement, “Through an incidental finding, i.e., a medical issue discovered by accident, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I was very fortunate that the tumor was relatively small, that I had no symptoms, and that I was otherwise in excellent health.”
McIntyre added, “Thereafter, I underwent successful surgery, followed by the post-operative treatment that is the standard of care for my situation,” he said. “I was advised at the time that, with the surgery and subsequent treatment behind me, I should expect to be able to maintain my usual active lifestyle, including working full time, and that expectation has proven to be accurate.”
But McIntyre’s health issue may be considerably less ominous than a cancer relapse. Bloomberg reported, “In July, he broke some vertebrae but said during an August podcast that he was ‘well on the mend and am feeling better every day.” That’s a possible explanation for “mobility” issues.
At Thursday’s meeting, the commission plowed through its agenda and then heard a briefing on a memorandum of understanding between the commission and the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on review of safety issues regarding applications for liquefieded natural gas export terminals. In the past,
FERC made LNG safety decision on its own, with later review by PHMSA. With the LNG business at FERC now switched to LNG export terminals, and a perceived need to streamline consideration of federal approvals, the DOT agency will now make the safety findings on its own.
Howard “Skip” Elliot, PHMSA administrator, told the commission, “The new MOU will allow FERC to act more quickly on applications for LNG projects and reduce the burden on applicants.”
At the meeting, Chatterjee issued his first dissent on a FERC order. It came in a jurisdictional dispute over federal versus state authority over the controversial Lake Powell Pipeline, which would take Colorado River water from Lake Powell, created by the FERC-regulated Glen Canyon Dam, and move it 139 to arid southwestern Utah’s Washington County for irrigation.
The Utah Board of Water Resources and the Washington County Water District want to extend FERC jurisdiction to the entire pipeline. Local environmental groups have opposed the project and have been challenging it before local governments. They view FERC as having a less public process.
McIntyre, Cheryl Lafleur and Rich Glick rejected the application from the Utah board and the county to broaden FERC’s authority over the project. In his dissent, Chatterjee said, “I believe that, in this case, the majority is misguided in its narrow interpretation of what facilities should be included in the hydroelectric facilities of the Lake Powell Project. A more expansive view is consistent with the FPA and Commission precedent and would provide the applicant with a predictable regulatory process.”
— Kennedy Maize