The federal utility watchdog that helps keep the nation’s electric rates in check and the lights on is losing all its Republican members as the calendar moves closer to November.
Both liberals and conservatives think the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission works at its best when it has all five members, which under the law must comprise of an equal mix of Democrats and Republicans.
“Of course FERC would work better if its roster were complete, as the statute intends, with five commissioners providing balance between parties,” said Michael Tadeo, spokesman for Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
One of the commission’s key functions is to make sure power rates are fair and reasonable. Having a full set of Republican members on the commission, along with Democrats, lends credibility to the commission in its role as an independent agency that functions at the behest of ratepayers, not whoever occupies the Oval Office.
But nobody thinks the Obama administration is going to fill the two spots anytime soon. Former Senate aides and energy lobbyists suggest the politics have become too hot to nominate new Republicans this late in President Obama’s final year in office.
“The conventional wisdom on FERC is the administration wasn’t going to nominate anyone because they were happy with three Democrats,” said one former senior Capitol Hill aide.
It has been nearly seven months since outspoken Republican Philip Moeller, who served since former President George W. Bush nominated him in 2006, left the commission. Since his departure in October, the administration hasn’t given any clue on his replacement, nor has the Republican majority in Congress given any hint of who it may recommend.
In addition, the remaining Republican on the commission, Tony Clark of North Dakota, said he will not be staying for another term when his current one expires at the end of June. Clark told the Washington Examiner that he will likely continue on for at least a few months, or until a replacement is nominated, which he says is not likely.
He wouldn’t speculate on why no new nominees have been announced. “I don’t know. It must take a lot longer to vet a FERC commissioner than a Supreme Court nominee,” he quipped. “They haven’t nominated for the seat that Phil had. I would encourage them to do so. There are a lot of things that just work better if you have a full deck, if you have all five commissioners.”
John Hughes, president and CEO of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council and a long-time expert on FERC policy, suggests that congressional intransigence is to blame.
“What will the Republicans give to the Democrats to get a Republican on the commission? What is in it for Harry Reid or the White House?” he asked rhetorically in an email. “Obstruction is a two-edge sword,” he wrote, alluding to two previous unprecedented fights over Obama’s picks to head the commission.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who would have a hand in the selection process, is mum on who would replace Moeller or Clark. “The leader does not comment until the president officially announces nominee candidates,” communications director David Popp said in an email.
Observers suggest that keeping the commission heavily Democratic going into an election year assures that there is less grumbling over the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of the Obama’s climate change agenda, as a new administration takes over, especially if it’s a Democratic one.
“The administration would have three allies in its implementation” of the climate rules, said Randy Elliot, senior counsel for regulation with the utility trade group American Public Power Association. Moeller and Clark were responsive to many of the utility group’s concerns over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal.
Without the Republicans, the commission is “a little more likely to go along with the president without questioning quite so carefully,” Elliot said. His trade group is suing the EPA over the Clean Power Plan with 30 states and dozens of other groups. Oral arguments are slated for June 2.
Although Democrats on the commission did not shy away from saying there could be potential problems in implementing the rule, Moeller was routinely more vocal on a wider array of issues that could befall the grid due to the interplay of numerous EPA rules.
Another utility group, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, praised Clark as instrumental in raising concerns about the climate plan’s tight deadlines, which ultimately helped lead the EPA to extend the time states are allowed to comply.
“We believe that all the FERC commissioners listened to and heard our concerns about the Clean Power Plan,” said Tracy Warren, a senior communications manager for the group. But she pointed out that electric co-ops appreciate Clark’s efforts for “clearly and articulately voicing many of their concerns about the potential impact of the Clean Power Plan and the critical importance of electric reliability.”
“Having the full complement of FERC commissioners ensures a more robust conversation,” Warren said.
Environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, agree that the commission needs to be full. Allison Clements, director of the Sustainable FERC Project, a collaboration between NRDC and other groups in support of FERC policies that lower emissions, says the commission works best with all five members to address “big issues” such as energy storage to integrate more renewables.
She said Democrats on the commission are raising reliability issues about the EPA rules even without a full roster of Republicans. “I worry about using the absences as a way of asserting politics,” Clements said.
Murkowski, for one, had been wary of Obama’s past picks to lead the commission, raising concerns over current Chairman Norman Bay after a series of Wall Street Journal articles pegged him as unfair to business.
Before that, it was Rick Binz, a former Colorado utility commission chairman, who got beaten up pretty badly at his nomination hearings for being viewed as opposed to coal. He later withdrew as the nominee.
Murkowski confronted him over emails she received showing he had meetings with the White House and Democratic lobbyists, after Binz had told her in private that he had no conversations with the administration.
“I’m sure that you can see the concern that I have when you sat in my office and assured me that there was no coordination with anyone outside of FERC, and then to read a series of emails … directly contradicting what I was told,” she said at a committee hearing in 2013.
The former Capitol Hill aide says it’s simple: “He lied to the chairman’s face.
“I think that was pretty blatant,” he added. “He didn’t do himself any favors.”
