The weaponization of government was a major driver of President Donald Trump’s historic comeback. From the Department of Justice labelling certain mothers “domestic terrorists” to the Transportation Safety Agency (TSA) adding individuals unwilling to wear masks to the “no fly” list, the Biden Administration left no stone unturned.
Even energy departments were not off limits. Take the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC). The FERC is supposed to be accountable to, but independent of, the White House, similar to the Federal Reserve, where President Trump can urge Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates but has not direct authority to make it happen.
The independence of FERC ensures that energy and infrastructure decisions are immune from presidential politics, and that is a good thing. Imagine a President Gavin Newsom ordering FERC actions to appease the green fringe of his base.
FERC’s mandate is to ensure the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, that all parties are compliant and all laws and regulations obeyed. That is not what happened during the Biden years.
On Biden’s first day in office, he nominated Richard Glick as FERC Chairman. Shortly thereafter, FERC became a bottleneck for seemingly perfunctory, non-controversial, energy projects. Glick told Congress in 2022 his decision making was based on “whether the benefits of the project – especially increasing access to natural gas – outweigh its adverse impacts.” No longer was Glick a compliance officer. He was making value judgments outside of the regulatory guardrails and even above and beyond Congress, who are accountable to the voters who elect them.
It is pure insanity than an energy regulator, presumably an expert in the energy space, would describe increasing access to natural gas as an “adverse impact”. That is not regulatory oversight but a political vision, and it was no coincidence FERC started playing politics.
In June 2022, The Wall Street Journal broke the story of Glick’s biweekly meetings with the White House climate office. Suddenly, it all clicked. Team Biden wanted to advance the climate agenda and punish the fossil fuel industry, and the FERC became the vehicle to do both. The weaponization of government struck again.
For those who followed the corruption of the FERC and their extraordinary authority to measure the worthiness of energy projects against the nebulous criteria of “climate change”, it was not shocking that the Senate Natural Resource Chairman Joe Manchin, a Democrat, blocked his re-nomination. The climate fringe of the Democrat Party was stopped by a moderate who had seen enough. Glick interjecting politics into FERC had not only surpassed his bureaucratic authority but had usurped Manchin’s Congressional and constitutional authority.
There is reason to be optimistic about the FERC’s future. Recently, President Trump’s nominees cleared Senate confirmation, and the FERC will now be in the hands of the sane. The Alfa Institute, former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s think tank, authored a report on FERC reforms which should simplify and streamline the process and prevent politics form intervening once again. Former Chair Glick treated upgrades and basic maintenance as new projects, beginning the review process at square one. Alfa proposes allowing these infrastructure projects to be approved without years of unnecessary red tape. This would not just drastically expand the supply of energy, but also help ensure basic projects are not hamstrung by the next White House influenced FERC chair pushing an agenda.
The new FERC commissioners, Laura V. Swett and David A. LaCerte, should have no agenda: not the agenda the climate industry nor even the fossil fuel industry. FERC should do its jobs, as outlined in their statutes, no more, no less.
Anarchy is not a viable option for America to survive. Government can navigate the complicated waters of our pursuit of happiness. As bad as anarchy, however, is weaponization: where “we the people,” through our elected representatives, chart a course only to have a faceless bureaucrat change it based on their personal whims or political pressure.
On his first day in office, President Trump rightfully declared an energy emergency. Four years of a weaponized FERC, coupled with untold regulations at the Departments of Interior, Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency, a trillion dollars in Inflation Reduction Act green spending, not to mention Climate Czar John Kerry flying around the world playing Chicken Little, put our energy industry into a deep hole. We are behind the ball on permitting, production, strategic reserves, all reflected in stubbornly high prices of goods and services. Market stabilization will return with regulatory certainty, and putting the FERC in the hands of capable commissioners whose only agenda is the doing their jobs is a necessary first step.
This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy
The post President Trump is fixing FERC was first published by the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and is republished here with permission. Please support their efforts.