INGAA President: FERC Needs to Move Swiftly to Fill Vacancies
Don Santa, president and chief executive officer of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, today commented on Norman Bay’s decision to resign from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, effective February 3.
“We appreciate Norman Bay for his service and dedication to the commission,” Santa said. “Norman Bay’s resignation from the commission will unfortunately leave FERC without a quorum. This means the commission will be unable to act on pending natural gas infrastructure projects of national importance. We encourage the commission to act on all matters that are ripe for decision prior to Commissioner Bay’s departure, and especially pending applications for authority to construct needed interstate natural gas pipelines.”
Santa also hopes FERC has a plan in place to ensure the approval of pipeline projects while it looks to fill existing vacancies.
“We also urge the commission to exercise to the fullest extent possible its authority to delegate certain functions to the staff in anticipation of the period during which it will lack a quorum. Given President Trump’s focus on infrastructure and domestic energy resources, we urge him to nominate candidates to fill the commission’s three existing vacancies as soon as possible. We, likewise, urge the Senate to act expeditiously on those nominations.”
According to Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFleur, FERC is working diligently to approve as many orders as possible while a quorum still exists and business will continue as usual once Bay’s resignation becomes official.
The Commission is working to get as many orders out as we can in the time we have left with a quorum,” LaFleur said. “I am confident that, with the strong team we have here at the Commission, we can continue to do our important work. We are evaluating how best to do the business of the Commission after Commissioner Bay’s departure and have already confirmed that all existing staff delegations will continue. We will be issuing a podcast on Monday with more detail, and I expect there will be still more to communicate on this in coming days. That said, I look forward to the day when we have a full, five-member Commission again.”
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