The nominations of Allison Clements and Mark Christie to be commissioners on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) advanced to the full Senate on voice votes Nov. 18 by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chairman and ranking member of the committee respectively, made a point of stressing bipartisanship and their support for both candidates. Schedule time in December for full Senate votes is yet to be determined.
Clements is a consultant and a former attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a group well known for suing federal regulators in environmental disputes. She also represented utilities and independent power producers when she worked at a law firm then named Troutman Sanders (now Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders).
Christie, chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, has been a member of that state regulatory body for 16 years and has taught regulatory law at the University of Virginia School of Law.
FERC is supposed to have five members but currently is reduced to three. If confirmed, Clements will have a term expiring June 30, 2024, as a successor to Cheryl LaFleur, while Christie will have a term expiring June 30, 2025, as a successor to Bernard McNamee.
Clements is a Democratic choice and Christie a Republican choice.
Clements is from Ohio but most recently is described as the president and founder of Goodgrid LLC, an energy policy and consulting firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah. For 10 years she worked for NRDC as corporate counsel and then director of the group’s Sustainable FERC Project.
FERC encounters environmental fights over its decisions on interstate natural gas pipelines and interstate power grid management. A chronic point of dispute in recent years has been the question of whether FERC, in considering a pipeline proposal, should calculate the “downstream” greenhouse gas emission consequences of burning gas at power plants or exporting liquefied gas.
