West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) called out Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard Glick Friday for his failure to do his “damn job.”
Manchin had traveled to Houston, TX to attend CERAWeek, an annual energy conference, in his capacity as head of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Tyler Olson from Fox News Digital asked Manchin about Glick’s view that pipeline delays were caused by legal disputes stemming from regulatory decisions in approving them.
“Well, speak up and help us, Mr. Chairman Glick,” Manchin said to that. “Speak up and help us rather than let them go down to the court process you won’t even see.”
Glick had spoken the day before at the conference and lamented the “years of litigation” witnessed time and again for various pipelines to the tune of “hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of extra cost.”
(Video: FoxBusiness)
“If we’re gonna provide some more certainty and some more clarity and really streamline the process,” Glick said, “the best way to streamline the process is to do it right the first time, do the regulatory process right the first time.”
However, Manchin pointed to Glick as a failure in leadership on achieving those ends, accusing the chair and his commission of withholding guidance on how to “do it right the first time.”
“If you go out with a cease and desist order,” Manchin suggested, “before you try to help someone do something right and tell them what they’re doing wrong, shame on ya. Shame on all of you.”
Manchin went on to point out that the regulatory commissions like FERC had only succeeded in placing more obstacles in the way of pipeline developers looking to ease the burden of energy prices amidst inflation and interrupted supply chains resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some of those obstacles include consideration that began in mid-February of “environmental justice impacts” on fossil fuel projects.
“I believe today’s long-overdue policy statements,” Glick said, “are essential to ensuring the Commission’s natural gas siting decisions are reflective of all stakeholder concerns and interest. We have witnessed the impact on pipeline projects when federal agencies, including the Commission, fail to fulfill their statutory responsibilities assessing the potential effects of a project on the environment, landowners and communities.”
Manchin spoke up then calling these regulatory decisions reckless. “The Commission went too far by prioritizing a political agenda over their main mission – ensuring our nation’s energy reliability and security,” Manchin stated while calling the move a risk to national security prior to the crisis in Ukraine.
The senator later countered Glick’s concerns about projects moving through too quickly at CERAWeek by stating, “I’m not saying push them through quickly, just do your damn job,” adding, “that’s all I told him,” when the two had spoken during a senate committee hearing the week prior.
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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