President Trump picked a Democrat on Thursday to lead the federal government’s top energy watchdog, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Cheryl LaFleur, who was named to the commission by former President Barack Obama in 2010, was appointed by Trump as acting chairwoman of the commission.
“It is an honor to again be asked to serve as acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and I thank President Trump for the opportunity,” LaFleur said. “While I recognize that FERC is in a state of transition as we await nominations to fill vacant seats at the agency, it is important that FERC’s work on the nation’s energy markets and infrastructure move forward.”
LaFleur had served as acting chairwoman a few years ago while the White House was involved in a contentious negotiation over who should lead the nation’s grid regulator after former Chairman Jon Wellinghoff left.
The commission is comprised of five members formed from both Democrats and Republicans, with the chairman being from the party of the president. But no Republicans are left on the commission after Tony Clark of North Dakota left in November and long-serving Phil Moeller before that.
Although a Democrat, LaFleur has had the support of a number of top congressional Republicans. She served as chairwoman when lawmakers had been pressing the panel to take concerted actions to address the potential harm the Obama administration’s climate change regulations could pose to the electric grid.
Under her watch, she succeeded in pressing the Environmental Protection Agency to include a “reliability safety valve” in the final Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of Obama’s climate agenda, to ensure that blackouts would not occur as a result of closing coal plants.
“So, I think [the EPA plan] will help shape a piece of our work for probably the next decade,” LaFleur told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview in 2015.
The safety valve would allow the plants to continue running if it was shown that closing them would result in significant loss of electricity.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates the wholesale electricity markets and has primary siting authority over interstate natural gas pipelines. Several of the pipelines it is in the process of approving are being adamantly opposed by environmentalists.
Recommendations for the next permanent chairman, who will be a Republican, will come from the Senate leadership. It has been widely speculated that Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s long-time energy aide, Neil Chatterjee, will be recommended to Trump to lead the commission.
