The nation’s electric grid watchdog faces a backlog of work after being shut down for more than six months because it didn’t have enough members.
“With a quorum restored, our first order of business is the backlog of orders and issues that are awaiting commission consideration,” said Cheryl LaFleur, the acting chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, after last week’s confirmation votes.
The Senate restored the commission’s quorum last week by confirming by unanimous consent Trump’s appointment of two Republican commissioners, Rob Powelson and Neil Chatterjee.
“I am very pleased to welcome Neil and Rob to the commission, and I look forward to working with them,” LaFleur added. “They each bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the important issues we are facing.”
The commission regulates the interstate electricity grid and approves pipelines and related energy infrastructure seen as key to the Trump administration’s “Energy Dominance” agenda.
The agency has been increasingly important in approving the pipelines required to move shale natural gas from states such as West Virginia and Pennsylvania to the East Coast. Because of that role, it has become a target by environmentalists seeking to block the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The backlog likely will comprise a number of pipeline siting approvals, as well as grid planning from the large electricity market operators that it oversees. A FERC spokeswoman would not say what specific actions the agency will take once it convenes its first public meeting expected to be held in September. It hasn’t convened a public meeting since before President Trump was inaugurated in January.
FERC staff released an infrastructure report last week ahead of the Senate votes that showed that in the period since the quorum was lost at the agency, the miles of electric transmission lines approved had in some cases been cut in half compared with the same period last year. The spokeswoman could not confirm officially if that was a result of the quorum being lost.
The commission was forced to cease all regulatory activities soon after Trump appointed LaFleur to be acting chairwoman in February, replacing former President Barack Obama’s chairman, Norman Bay, who resigned soon after her appointment.
At the time, LaFleur had been serving as one of two Democratic commissioners after both Republican commissioners’ terms had expired. FERC is made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, with the chairman being of the same political party as the White House. With Obama’s chairman gone, it no longer had at least three members to continue its oversight and regulatory activities, and was effectively shut down with senior staff placed in charge of its day-to-day operations.
LaFleur will remain as acting chairwoman until the Senate confirms Trump’s appointee, Kevin McIntyre, to lead the agency.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has slated McIntyre’s first confirmation hearing for the first week of September. But it will take some time to move his nomination to the floor, given the ambitious workload the Senate is expected to take up when they Congress returns. The committee also will consider Richard Glick to serve as Democratic commissioner.
