Organizations nationwide are urging Senator Murkowski, chair of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee to delay hearings on Trump’s nominees for the Federal Energy and Natural Resources Commission.
The following letter was sent to Senator Murkowski, ranking member Senator Cantwell and members of the ENR committee.
On behalf of communities and organizations working in states across the nation who are experiencing direct and repeated abuse from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) misuse of its power to consider natural gas pipelines and infrastructure projects, we urge you to postpone any hearings on President Trump’s nominations for FERC Commissioner.
President Trump’s unknown personal and professional ties with foreign leaders and foreign corporations raise serious and legitimate concerns for those he would seek to install in these highly consequential positions. FERC’s role in protecting the U.S. energy grid is essential to our national security. Recent events regarding President Trump’s firing of FBI Director Comey, including his apparent demand for loyalty in how the Director carried out his decision making and activities as head of the FBI, heightens our alarm and concern.
It is imperative that the Senate oppose advancing, and certainly take no steps to expedite, confirmation of the President’s nominees to FERC.
Instead, the Senate should prioritize holding Congressional hearings into the abuses of power and law already experienced at the hands of FERC, in order to identify and secure needed reforms. Such reforms should prevent the ongoing abuses experienced today, ensure that when conflicted Commissioners are inappropriately placed into this high office they are no longer able to misuse their authority for their own personal gain, and guarantee that there is a genuine and reasonable mechanism for having them removed for cause when the facts deem it necessary.