The Trump administration is breaking its silence over its decision to demote Republican Neil Chatterjee as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“We were trying to do Chatterjee a favor by not embarrassing him publicly with an announcement,” James Bacon, director of operations for the office of presidential personnel, told the Washington Examiner.
In the absence of an official White House comment, Chatterjee, a former energy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has cast his demotion as an act of retaliation against him for moving to address climate change.
That includes recent policies he led to begin allowing energy markets to put a price on carbon emissions, along with supporting renewable energy technologies.
Bacon said he’d “rather not” say why the administration replaced Chatterjee, a Trump appointee who remains a commissioner through the end of his term next year, with new chairman James Danly, a more conservative Republican.
But Bacon did reject assertions proffered by Chatterjee, including allegations in the Washington Post, that the White House failed to follow necessary steps in demoting him.
The story suggested the Trump administration’s handling of Chatterjee’s demotion was demonstrative of the haphazard manner of a “post-election purge” instigated by John McEntee, the 30-year-old head of the personnel office, against disloyal federal officials.
Chatterjee alleged the White House office of presidential personnel sent “a one-sentence email” on Nov. 4 to FERC’s executive director saying Danly would replace him.
He suggested the Trump administration may have failed to sign a legal designation for a new FERC chair, which he said was typically accompanied by the White House making a public announcement posted on its website.
Chatterjee made similar allegations to the Washington Examiner, which it sought to confirm before printing.
“The whole manner [in which] this FERC transition went down was weird,” Chatterjee told the Washington Examiner last week. “There is no documented evidence the designation has occurred.”
Chatterjee also said the White House typically mailed him the official legal designation in past instances when the administration swapped chairmen. He offered that it was possible the documentation was “lost in the mail.”
But as recently as Friday evening, Chatterjee suggested something was amiss. He said he was worried orders issued by FERC and signed by Danly as chairman would be legally vulnerable and “invalidated” if the White House failed to file the proper paperwork.
“It’s been 8 days and we still have no signed designation and no WH announcement about the switch,” he texted the Washington Examiner on Friday night.
Asked if the White House followed proper protocol, Bacon said, “The president signed an order designating James Danly the chairman of FERC effective Nov. 4, 2020. This order has been transmitted to the executive director of FERC.”
FERC is proceeding as if Danly is chairman.
“Yes, he officially and legally is Chairman,” FERC spokeswoman Mary O’Driscoll said in a statement on Monday.
And Danly is already disposing of some of Chatterjee’s agenda.
Last week, he canceled a planned roundtable discussion scheduled for December on the deployment of electric vehicles.
Danly, whose staff did not respond to a request for comment, is scheduled to lead his first FERC meeting on Thursday.
