Mr. Biden has sought to use FERC not only to regulate our energy system but as a chokepoint to kill fossil-fuel infrastructure. Mr. Biden’s chosen chairman, Richard Glick, has dutifully executed this agenda. In February Mr. Glick led a 3-2 vote to transform radically FERC’s policy for approving natural-gas pipelines and export terminals, adding the consideration of upstream and downstream greenhouse-gas emissions to pipeline-permitting analysis.
President Biden has nominated Glick to a second five-year term on the commission with the hope that he will be able to exercise even more influence in limiting the development of critical pipeline infrastructure.
The status quo is already dire. As Sen. Joe Manchin (D, W.Va.) has noted, we are currently in a system where, “no matter what you want to build, whether it’s transmission pipelines or hydropower dams, more often than not, it takes too long and drives up costs.” . . . Mr. Glick’s fate is now in the hands of Mr. Manchin, whose committee oversees FERC and vets its nominees. Mr. Manchin will ultimately decide whether to schedule Mr. Glick’s confirmation hearing. He shouldn’t.
The full editorial, entitled Joe Manchin Can Stop a Partisan Energy Takeover at FERC, is available here.
Update: On November 10, a spokeswoman from Sen. Manchin’s office explained that the Senator “was not comfortable holding a hearing” for Glick. Unless a hearing is scheduled, Glick’s time on the commission will end at the end of the year.