By Kennedy Maize
In another test of the administration’s belief that Congressionally created independent regulatory commissions are not independent of the president, the White House at 6:15 p.m. Friday (June 13) informed Commissioner Christopher Hanson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that he was fired without cause.
Trump earlier this year replaced Democrat Hanson as NRC chairman with Republican Commissioner David Wright. That action was in accordance with the legislation establishing the NRC. The president is entitled to have a chairman from his political party.
Hanson’s firing came in a terse email from Trent Morse, deputy director of the White House personnel office, offering no reason for the action. It stated, “I am writing to inform you that your position as Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”
The administration made it clear in a series of executive orders earlier this year that it regards the NRC as an obstacle to its (overly) ambitious agenda for new nuclear power plants.
Russell Vought, head of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget is an advocate of a unitary federal government and opposed to the very notion of independent executive branch agencies.
In a Nov. 18 interview on the Tucker Carlson Show, Vought said, “There are no independent agencies. Congress may have viewed them as such — SEC, or the FCC, CFPB, the whole alphabet soup — but that is not something that the Constitution understands.” He indicated that the Trump administration is going to dismantle these institutions at will.
In a comment on Twitter, Hanson said that his firing is “contrary to law and long-standing precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointees.”
Hanson has dual masters of divinity and environmental studies degrees from Yale. He spent several years as a Booz Allen Hamilton consultant, an advisor in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, and a senior staffer in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Trump appointed him to an NRC slot as a Democratic commissioner in June 2020. President Biden named him chairman in January 2021. His term expired in June 2024 and Biden reappointed him to a term ending in June 2029.
The move to capture the NRC and turn it into a partisan tool of the White House is generating opposition even from nuclear industry interests. Shortly after the firing became public, Judi Greenwald, head of the Washington industry group the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, issued a news release decrying the White House action. “The firing of Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Christopher Hanson without cause goes against both law and precedent. As advocates for new nuclear energy, we are focused on the NRC’s role in re-establishing U.S. nuclear energy leadership.
“We have long believed that a strong and independent NRC is essential to the public, the industry, and potential customers of U.S. nuclear technology both here and abroad. Undermining NRC’s independence is damaging to both long-term U.S. interests and to the ongoing work that is required to ensure that nuclear power can provide reliable and clean energy to power the American economy.”
The Washington-based American Nuclear Society, which represents industry professionals, commented, “A competent, effective, and fully staffed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is essential to the rapid deployment of new reactors and advanced technologies. The arbitrary removal of commissioners without due cause creates regulatory uncertainty that threatens to delay America’s nuclear energy expansion.”
The industry’s legacy Washington lobbying organization, the Nuclear Energy Institute, was silent.
Former NRC Chairman Richard Meserve and a prominent Washington lawyer, told Politico’s E&E News, “Trump’s action in firing Chris Hanson as the chairman is very disturbing.
“The NRC was established over 50 years ago as an independent agency to be led by a bipartisan group of five commissioners who, by statute, could only be removed for cause. Trump’s action is inconsistent with Congressional direction and reflects his intent to abolish the NRC as an independent agency.”
The White House action also quickly generated political pushback from important Congressional Democrats. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking minority member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has NRC jurisdiction, told the Los Angeles Times, “Congress explicitly created the NRC as an independent agency, insulated from the whims of any president, knowing that was the only way to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the American people.”
The LA Times also quoted a joint statement by Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Patty Murray of Washington, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, that “‘Trump’s lawlessness’ threatens the commission’s ability to ensure that nuclear power plants and nuclear materials are safe and free from political interference.”
Hanson’s firing could create a serious problem for the NRC. The agency now has only four of five commissioners, Republicans Wright and Annie Caputo, and two Democrats, Bradley Crowell and Matthew Marzano. Wright’s term expires in less than two weeks, June 30. The White House has not indicated that will renominate Wright or come up with a new nominee.
Perhaps Vought and the White House will take their views on independent agencies even further. If the president can summarily fire commissioners without cause, can the president unilaterally appoint commissioners without bothersome Senate confirmation? Or perhaps the president can simply abolish the NRC and transfer its remnants to the Department of Energy, essentially recreating the Atomic Energy Commission, which Congress abolished when it created the NRC in 1974 after finding that the AEC was downgrading nuclear safety.
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