Yesterday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENR) pushed through the vote on Bernard McNamee’s nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC), despite calls for delays by ENR Democrats. There has been increasing uproar surrounding Trump’s FERC nominee, as Utility Dive released a video featuring McNamee disparaging renewable energy and referring to fossil fuels as “key to our prosperity, our way of life and also to a clean environment.” 
McNamee continues, referring to the Green Movement as “administrative tyranny” and government environmental regulations as “a constant war between liberty and tyranny.”
McNamee’s partisan past has raised concerns about conflict of interests within FERC, as FERC is an independent agency that takes a “fuel neutral” approach to energy regulation. We believe FERC should be rejecting fossil fuels and fully transition to support for renewables, especially in light of the IPCC climate report and reports coming from Trump’s own administration.
During the early part of the ENR voting process BXE member Ted Glick stood and shouted “ Bernard is a fossil fuel extremist. Bernard McNamee! Remember California! Remember Houston! Remember Puerto Rico! No on McNamee! McNamee doesn’t support renewables! No on McNamee!” Ted was removed and arrested but was released that day. Ted said “My arrest today is my 23rd non-violent civil disobedience arrest, and it won’t be my last. We all need to step it up for present and future generations until the fossil fuel industry’s power over Washington is broken.”
The ENR Committee voted 13-10 in favor of McNamee. According to analysis by priceofoil.org,
“The 13 Senators who voted in the Committee to move McNamee’s nomination forward have taken a combined total of nearly $10 million from the fossil fuel industry – bought and paid for by an industry that accelerates the climate crisis and only cares about protecting their profits.
The key numbers breakdown:
Combined fossil fuel contributions to Senators voting for McNamee: nearly $10,000,000
Average lifetime dirty energy money per Senator voting for McNamee: $755,219
Average lifetime dirty energy money per Senator voting against McNamee: $88,682
That works out to more than 8 times the dirty energy money taken by those voting in favor of McNamee’s nomination than the average of those voting against the clearly fossil-biased pick.”
The fight against McNamee is not over. Senator Murkowski has said that the decision will go before the full Senate in December.
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