During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) questioned Federal Energy Regulatory Commission nominee, David LaCerte, about the NEPA review process.
00:00Senator Parasso. Thanks so much, Mr. Chairman. For both of you, congratulations. Welcome to the committee.
00:06You know, this is a committee that gets work done. We last year passed permitting legislation, 15 to 4, bipartisan,
00:14because for a long, long time we've all agreed that environmental permitting requirements have delayed the halted needed infrastructure projects for our country
00:23to make sure that we have the energy and the ability to transmit that energy. Part of this is pipeline.
00:28So, Ms. Sweat, even the courts have realized that this is out of control. The Supreme Court, as we've discussed this year, issued an eight to zero ruling that determined that reviews have become unreasonably burdensome.
00:41In the seven-county decision, Justice Kavanaugh wrote that, quote, the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock,
00:52but it's turned into a roadblock, and so the Supreme Court agreed eight to nothing.
00:56He continued, the goal of the law is to inform agency decision-making, not to paralyze it.
01:02So, how do you believe this decision is going to impact how FERC reviews projects?
01:08Thank you for the question, Senator.
01:10As someone who has been part of the NEPA process for many applications in front of FERC, I share your sentiments that the regulatory process can be difficult to navigate,
01:24and also creates quite a bit of uncertainty for infrastructure developers who invest billions of dollars into securing our nation's energy future.
01:35I see seven-county as significantly narrowing the scope of environmental review required under NEPA,
01:43and now that it's more clear what FERC is required to do in examining the projects before it under the procedural statutes of NEPA,
01:53I am confident that we, if I have the honor of being confirmed, that with my colleagues we should be able to take a hard look at FERC's processes to see what efficiencies are available,
02:05to see what we can make more transparent for the industry and to the benefit of the American people.
02:13Mr. Lusher, we talked about FERC being not really widely known about outside Washington, D.C.,
02:19but the Commission's actions have a really big impact on the lives of Americans all across the country.
02:25The decisions that the Commission makes determines whether the lights reliably go on when people flip the switch.
02:30So, please provide us your views of FERC's role in ensuring reliability and affordability of energy.
02:36Absolutely, Senator.
02:37I welcome that question, and thank you for discussing it with me.
02:40Reliability and affordability is a bedrock of FERC's work.
02:43So, if confirmed, obviously I would follow the law, but we'd ask two questions of every single action in which we undertake at FERC as Commissioner.
02:51How, does this make our grid and energy structure more reliable?
02:54And the second question we'd ask is, does this make our grid and infrastructure more affordable?
03:00And the answer to those questions is no, then I'd ask why we're doing it and why we're undertaking those things.
03:04So, it's a fundamental balance of we need to affordability and reliability
03:09that impacts every aspect of our entire industry within our country.
03:15As Senator Lee said, you know, it's such a large percentage of our GDP.
03:21It's important that outside of FERC that those impacts are recognized and those perspectives are welcome.
03:27We've had years of stagnant electric demand, but that's really changed, because we're expecting a rapid growth with AI, with data centers, with electrification.
03:39As I've pointed out to this committee in the past, that peak demand in the summer is expected five years from now, because of all these things, to actually increase as if adding an entire new California to the grid, even to the point that the New York Times had that as a front page story.
03:55The demand is growing. Clearly, FERC is going to play a vital part in managing and helping with this growth.
04:02Can you share your views on the importance of meeting the demand growth and FERC's role in supporting that effort?
04:07Thank you for the question, Senator. I actually have lost sleep a few nights worrying about how our country will meet the demand that it faces.
04:19If I had the honor of being confirmed, I would do everything I can within the powers clearly drawn by Congress for the agency, and that is to ensure that there is plentiful supply of energy at just and reasonable rates.
04:37And taking a hard look at the merits of every single matter before me, including the specific geographic market characteristics of each matter, which are extremely different depending on what market they are, the type of company that's in front of the commission, and also how it interconnects to the grid.
04:57I would weigh all of those to ensure that FERC is mindfully encouraging connection and development of whatever it can.
05:06Mr. Chair, my time's expired. Thank you very much. Congratulations.
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