For years we’ve worked with Beyond Extreme Energy and other partners to reform and re-make the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. With Trump back in the White House, it’s safe to say we had modest and shrinking expectations for FERC reform.
But since the commission currently has two Democrats, two Republicans, and one vacancy, I had hoped it might stay a sleepy little backwater. Or maybe that the new Republican Chair Mark Christie might focus on bipartisan rules and permits. Then Trump nominated two new Republicans to FERC, and, friends, they are AWFUL. Now we may only have weeks to stop the nominations before things get a whole lot worse.
Click here to sign and send a letter telling your Senators to reject Trump’s FERC nominees!
Trump’s two new nominees are Laura Swett and David LaCerte. Both worked on Project 2025 – the infamous plan to remake the US into an authoritarian state that only serves Trump and his fossil fuel paymasters. Both have a history of favoring fossil fuels over clean energy, and of working for the most terrible, cruel, and illegal parts of Trump’s energy and management teams. Both must be stopped.
Laura Swett worked at FERC before under Trump’ s first-term FERC nominee, Bernard McNamee — who you may remember we opposed as well. When Trump left power, Swett and McNamee wrote the energy section of Project 2025 — the infamous Trump manual for installing a fossil fueled fascist regime. The Energy section includes recommendations that FERC commissioners be barred from considering climate impacts or costs and should instead rewrite rules to be more favorable to coal, gas and nuclear power.
David LaCerte, is currently working in Trump’s Office of Personnel Management, which has been busy firing of federal workers, withholding funds for clean energy and climate action, and committing a variety of other policy violence. He was previously the Louisiana Veterans Affairs Secretary, until he was accused by state investigators of mismanaging the agency and embellishing his own military service credentials. He resigned under a cloud of scandal and later tried to sue (unsuccessfully, so far) his accusers.
Clearly these are not acceptable, reasonable, or fair-minded nominees. They are fossil fueled fascists who will use and abuse FERC to benefit fossil fuel corporations, drive up rates for consumers, and deepen the climate crisis that affects us all. Buy lest you think that our advocacy will also fall on the Senate’s deaf ears and make no difference – consider a minor footnote from the last round of FERC Nominations. When (now) Commissioners Chang, Rosner, and See were nominated, and had their Senate ENR hearing just about a year ago, Senator Josh Hawley voted no on all three – largely out of pique over his opposition to a big transmission line project that was proposed for his state of Missouri. Lo and behold, earlier this month, Hawley, got that same power line — known as Grain Belt Express — blocked by Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Canceling a power line that was mostly going to move renewable energy from the plains to big cities isn’t the sort of FERC action we’re trying to stop. But it does show that it’s not environmental or climate reviews that block projects – often times it’s just one Senator with a grudge. And it also shows what is possible when Senators on the Energy committee decide to pay attention to FERC, its commissioners, and the projects under its purview.
So, help us wake up a few Senators and focus their attention on the clean energy transition and FERC where it belongs and in a good way. Sign and send a letter to your Senators now telling them to vote “no” on both these terrible people and FERC nominees. When a hearing is scheduled on these nominations, we’ll let you know and deliver all the comments to the Senate Energy Committee before they vote.