U.S. Senator Steve Daines questioned Laura Swett and David LaCerte, nominees for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), regarding the commission’s primary responsibilities during a recent committee hearing. Daines highlighted that FERC should focus on economic and safety regulation rather than climate issues.
Daines stated, “The FERC’s mission, as stated on their website, is, and I quote, ‘To assist consumers in containing reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy.’ FERC is not and should not be a climate regulator. FERC is and should remain an independent body that focuses on safety and economics and stays true to the mission. My first question is for both – Ms. Swett and Mr. LaCerte. And it’s been the same for many of the FERC nominees that have come before this committee over the past several years. It’s a yes or no question. Do you agree that FERC’s primary mission is to be an economic and safety regulator?”
Both nominees responded affirmatively.
Swett: “Yes.”
LaCerte: “Yes.”
During the hearing, Daines also addressed hydropower permitting reform, noting its importance to Montana’s electricity generation.
“Hydropower provides the second largest share of electricity generation in Montana. It’s a wonderful source of renewable energy and baseload power, and a very affordable and reliable power. Many of the existing dams are currently undergoing relicensing. Unfortunately, the existing process is broken and can take nearly a decade to relicense a hydropower dam that has been operating for four decades. I’ve worked long and hard in this committee to make changes to that process. This includes modest changes to speed up the process, focus it on the actual effects of the project moving forward instead of a wish list of mandatory conditions from agencies and outside stakeholders,” Daines said.
He then asked both nominees if they agreed with expediting licensing procedures for hydropower projects.
Swett replied: “Given our unprecedented demand that we’re facing, getting every single molecule of electricity on the grid is of tantamount importance.”
LaCerte added: “I acknowledge that hydro is an important component of our energy mix, and we need to do a better job of not only of the licensing for hydro, but across the board.”
Daines concluded by encouraging support for increased domestic energy production across various sources.
“If we’re going to meet demands, we simply need more of virtually every energy source. We simply need to be building more, which includes permitting more and trying to accelerate, getting, as you said, more of these electrons on the grid, more natural gas, more coal, more hydropower, more nuclear, more geothermal, more wind, more solar—we need more electrons,” he said. “I encourage the nominees to keep that in the back, and I might argue the front, of your minds when you’re making decisions on the future of U.S. energy policy. So thank you for being before this committee today and for being willing to serve in these very important roles for our great country.”
