U.S. vitality regulator’s future shaky as Senator Manchin refuses listening to By Reuters

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia, indicated he wouldn’t maintain a affirmation listening to to think about President Joe Biden’s re-nomination of high vitality regulator Wealthy Glick, probably dooming Glick’s possibilities.

Glick, chairman of the Federal Vitality Regulatory Fee (FERC), must be authorised by the total Senate for an additional time period.

Manchin took umbrage with feedback by Biden days earlier than the midterm elections about shutting coal-fired energy crops. “We’ll be shutting these crops down all throughout America,” Biden mentioned on Nov. 4.

“The Chairman was not comfy holding a listening to,” Sam Runyon, a spokesperson for Manchin mentioned in a launch. Runyon didn’t reply to a query about whether or not Manchin, the chairman of the Senate Vitality Committee, was refusing to carry a listening to due to Biden’s coal feedback.

A White Home official mentioned: “We perceive that the Committee wants extra time, and we hope to maneuver ahead as we proceed to work collaboratively with each the Committee and Chairman Manchin.”

Manchin’s stance on not having a listening to for Glick was reported by Bloomberg Legislation.

Manchin, the founder and partial proprietor of a non-public coal brokerage, Enersystems, has been reluctant to rein in fossil fuels. His assist for Biden’s Inflation Discount Act laws got here solely after the laws’s local weather measures have been trimmed.

He blasted FERC earlier this 12 months over proposed scrutiny of greenhouse gasoline emissions from pipelines and liquefied pure gasoline terminals. The company has since walked again the proposal.

Whereas the listening to might nonetheless be rescheduled, time is operating brief earlier than the top of the present Congress. Glick’s time period ends when the present Congress adjourns on Jan. 2 or earlier than, and he can’t maintain the chairmanship or a seat on the five-member panel after that except reconfirmed by the total Senate.

The razor-thin Democratic management of the Senate is in query after the Nov. 8 elections and it could be unlikely for a Republican-controlled Congress to approve Glick. Even when the Senate remained at 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris having the tie-breaking vote, a “no” vote from Manchin might doom Glick’s chairmanship. A FERC with solely two Republicans and two Democrats might impasse the panel’s vitality coverage selections.

FERC didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.