US President Donald Trump intends to nominate Richard Glick, presently general counsel for the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member, the White House announced on June 28.
The news came 2 days before Commissioner Colette D. Honorable’s term expires, and more than 3 weeks after the committee referred the nominations of Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson as FERC commissioners to the full Senate for final approval (OGJ Online, June 6, 2017).
Before joining the committee, Glick was vice-president for government affairs for Iberdrola’s renewable energy, electric, and gas utility, and natural gas storage businesses in the US, and held similar government affairs positions at PPM Energy and Pacifcorp. He also was a senior policy advisor to then-US Sec. of Energy Bill Richardson from 1998 to 2001.
Natural gas trade association officials welcomed the news on June 29. “We respect Glick’s depth of experience and subject-matter expertise, and urge the president to follow up soon with a formal nomination,” Interstate Natural Gas Association of America Pres. Donald F. Santa said.
INGAA estimates that about $14 billion in private capital—ready to be deployed on energy infrastructure projects—is being held on the sidelines while FERC lacks a quorum and cannot act on major projects, he said.
Natural Gas Supply Association Pres. Dena E. Wiggins also noted that billions of dollars in investments and thousands of job opportunities have been sidelined since FERC lost its quorum in early 2017 when commission member Norman Bay resigned. “It is essential that the nominees be given the opportunity to be approved as quickly as possible,” she said.
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