Casten Applauds Biden’s Announced Plans to Nominate 5th Commissioner to FERC, Following Congressman’s Viral Hot FERC Summer Campaign
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Biden today announced his intent to nominate Willie Phillips, Chairman of the District of Columbia Public Service Commission, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This comes on the heels of Congressman Sean Casten's (D-IL) "Hot FERC Summer" campaign, which celebrates FERC's pivotal role in achieving our country's clean energy goals and to highlight the opportunity for President Biden to name a 5th commissioner, creating a majority on the Commission for the first time in years.
Reacting to the news from the White House, Casten said, "51 days ago, I declared the start of #HotFERCSummer to raise public awareness around the importance of FERC and push for the nomination of a 5th commissioner with the urgency the climate crisis demands. Today, I am thrilled to see President Biden announce his plans to nominate Willie Phillips as a Commissioner, moving us one step closer to restoring FERC to its full strength with a democratic majority for the first time in years. A speedy confirmation by the Senate will allow us to make the transmission and market reforms necessary to transition to cleaner, cheaper energy while growing our economy and creating jobs. If you ask me, that's FERCalicious.
"With devastating hurricanes, superstorms and record-setting heatwaves already causing deadly droughts, wildfires, and blackouts at unprecedented frequency, we've run out the clock to transition to a clean energy economy. Between the filibuster and a Supreme Court stacked against clean energy regulatory reform, a fully staffed, climate-focused FERC is one of the most powerful tools we have to get to a zero carbon economy--and if I've done my job right, one that most of you are now keeping tabs on."
"As positive as this news may be, #HotFERCsummer isn't over quite yet," Casten Continued. "Should Chairman Phillips' be confirmed by the Senate, FERC must then leverage its majority to ensure that initiatives are in place to make further progress in our clean energy goals rather than fight against them---from building an electric grid for our 21st century economy to ensuring state renewable energy rules are integrated into regional markets and that uneconomic fossil fuel plants are subjected to the competitive pressures of a free market that have given us an explosion in solar and wind energy over the past decade."
To watch Casten's Hot FERC Summer speech, click here. To watch his FERCalicious speechclick here.
Rep. Casten recently introduced three bills on FERC:
- The Timely Rehearings at FERC Act, H.R.4746, which Casten introduced with Congressman Tom Malinowksi (D-NJ) amends the Federal Power Act by changing the timeline that FERC must respond to requests for rehearing orders on any of its decisions. Rep. Malinowski introduced a companion to Casten's bill making similar changes to the Natural Gas Act.
- H.R. 4556, the Energy Price Act, which Rep. Casten introduced last week with Reps. Mike Levin (D-CA), Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) would clarify that for the purposes of the Federal Power Act (which has been law for nearly a century) that any electricity price not accounting for the price of greenhouse gas emissions is ‘unjust, unreasonable, or unduly preferential, or discriminatory'. This isn't a change of FERC's authority under the FPA, but mainly a return to form for FERC – court rulings have held that the Commission must ensure protection of the public interest when setting rates, and given the 2009 endangerment finding from the EPA that found that greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare, it's clear that FERC should take into account how a rate accounts for the cost of greenhouse gases when determining if it's allowable. The bill was introduced last Congress as HR 5742.
- HR 2678, the Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act , which Rep. Casten introduced this spring with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) would require FERC to issue a rulemaking on interregional transmission, requiring grid operators to look at interregional solutions, not just intraregional ones, as is often the case today. Interregional transmission will be an incredibly important part of decarbonization – an analysis by Americans for a Clean Energy Grid identified 22 high-voltage transmission projects that could begin construction in the next year that would create up to 240,000 jobs if all built (according to the American Council on Renewable Energy). A version of the bill is included in the CLEAN Futures Act out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and is also in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources package that was marked up earlier this month that is slated to be included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework.[bill text]