The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday unanimously voted to advance D.C. Public Service Commission Chair Willie Phillips’ nomination to FERC to the Senate floor.
Phillips was advanced as part of a slate of five nominees, including Charles Sams to be director of the National Park Service and Brad Crabtree to be assistant secretary of energy for fossil energy and carbon management. The committee held a confirmation hearing for the three Oct. 19. (See Phillips, FERC Get Little Attention at Confirmation Hearing.)
“I believe Mr. Phillips will bring a wealth of expertise in safeguarding reliability and affordability to” FERC, Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said in praising each of the five nominees Tuesday. “While I don’t necessarily agree with all of their views, I do believe they are well qualified and deserving of support.”
The committee also advanced separately by a 12-8 roll call vote the nomination of Asmeret Berhe to be director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, with most Republicans opposed.
If confirmed, Phillips would join Chairman Richard Glick and Commissioner Allison Clements to give Democrats a 3-2 edge on the panel.
Organizations swiftly praised the committee for acting and called on the Senate to confirm Phillips as soon as possible.
“Given the significant transmission and power market reforms necessary to unlock America’s growing renewable energy economy, a full complement of five FERC commissioners is critical for accelerating the clean energy transition,” American Council on Renewable Energy CEO Gregory Wetstone said in a statement.
“We need strong, swift action from FERC to update existing organized market designs and rules, improve competition in regions without organized markets, and support efficient and cost-effective expansion of the transmission grid to harness the full potential of advanced energy technologies,” said Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel at Advanced Energy Economy, which represents companies that provide grid-scale and distributed technologies and services.
