Urge the US Senate to block Fossil Fuel FERC Commissioner!

Dear Senators,

I urge you to oppose confirmation of Bernard McNamee as the next Commissioner to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Donald Trump nominated B. McNamee because he is another fossil fuel advocate and apologist. We don’t need more fossil fool advocates in government leadership – we need smart people who care about our people, environment and future generations.

Bernard McNamee is a vocal supporter of dirty fossil fuels. In a 2018 Earth Day op-ed printed in The Hill, Mr. McNamee applauded the ongoing use of oil, coal, fracked shale gas and other fossil fuels. Using that same silly line that clean energy only works “when the sun is shining or wind is blowing,”(i) Mr. McNamee suggested that meeting energy needs through clean energy options is not realistic, ignoring the wealth of research demonstrating that not only are clean energy strategies available and growing, but by 2050 clean energy options can well serve U.S. energy needs,(ii) while protecting our environment, public health, job creation and the economy all at the same time.

FERC is a known Rubber Stamp when it comes to approving fracked gas pipeline projects. Pipelines are locking our nation into a fossil fuel future and ensuring we are subjected to the most devastating harms of climate change. Every FERC pipeline approved is putting more families in peril, costing taxpayers billions of dollars in needed response, keeping workers from their jobs and preventing the advancement of clean energy technologies that create 3 to 5 times the number of jobs than their dirty fossil fuel counterparts. Waters are being polluted, communities devastated, and the future of our children, our children’s children, and every future generation to come is being jeopardized.

In addition, FERC is blatantly misusing its authority to undermine the rights of property owners, communities, states and other agencies to question or challenge fracked gas pipelines.

I join with individuals, organizations and communities from across the nation to urge you to reject Bernard McNamee to fill the vacant FERC Commissioner seat – he is unsuitable for the job.

In addition, I urge you to call for congressional hearings into FERC’s blatant bias towards pipelines, and its abuses of power and law, so that you can put in place needed reforms and then identify a worthy candidate to fill the Commission vacancy.

If we are to save our communities, nation and earth, we need FERC Commissioners who recognize science as an important tool for decisionmaking, who recognize the importance and viability of clean energy on a near-term basis, and who recognize that fossil fuels, including their CO2 and Methane emissions, are <span class="profanity">contributing</span> to devastating impacts on our nation and earth and need to be phased out as soon as possible.

Please, reject Bernard McNamee’s nomination to be a FERC Commissioner, hold hearings into FERC’s abuses instead.

Respectfully and Urgently,

i. Bernard McNamee, This Earth Day, let’s accept the critical role the fossil fuel plays in energy needs, The Hill, April 17, 2018, available at https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/383605-this-earth-day-lets-accept-the-critical-role-that-fossil-fuel.

ii. See Mark Z. Jacobson, et al., 100% clean and renewable wind, water, sunlight (WWS) all-sector energy roadmaps for the 50 United States, 8 Energy Environ. Sci. 2093 (2015); See also National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Renewable Electricity Futures Study: Executive Summary, NREL/TP-6A20-52409-ES (2012).