• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update May 30, 2023
House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions May 30, 2023
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 30, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 30, 2023
Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act May 30, 2023
Next
Prev

‘Totally Worth It’, Regulator Says, After Trump Demotes Him for Backing Carbon Pricing, Distributed Energy

November 9, 2020
Reading time: 2 minutes

Damien Connor/YouTube

Damien Connor/YouTube

1
SHARES
 

Donald Trump’s hand-picked chair of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says he was “demoted for my independence” on climate change, but maintains it was “totally worth it” to back recent FERC rulings on distributed energy resources (DER) and utility carbon pricing.

While most people in the United States and around much of the world were transfixed by the days-long vote-counting process that unfolded during the U.S. election, Trump “abruptly demoted” Republican appointee Neil Chatterjee, “the head of a key energy panel who wants to take steps to mitigate climate change,” the Washington Post reports. “The move comes just weeks after Chatterjee and the agency began clearing the way for regional power administrators to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions, the main contributor to global warming.”

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

While the concept of a carbon tax “has been discussed for decades and has support across the political spectrum,” the Post adds, Trump “spent his presidency trying to reduce the regulatory burdens and costs associated with the fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide when burned.”

Click here for our Special Report on climate and the U.S. election.

While Chatterjee has often supported fossil fuels since he began his five-year FERC appointment in 2017, FERC also “opened up electricity markets to rooftop solar panels and storage systems for solar, wind, and other green energy” during his tenure as chair. He also ran the kind of workplace diversity training sessions that Trump banned in a September executive order.

Chatterjee, a one-time energy advisor to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), speculated he got the axe because his recent actions “aggravated somebody at the White House, and they make the switch.” But “if that’s the case, that’s being demoted for my independence,” he told the Post. “I’m quite proud of that, and will wear it as a badge of honour.”

“I knew when I moved forward with Order 2222 (on DER), convening the tech conference on carbon pricing, and ultimately moved forward with a proposed policy statement, that there was the risk of blowback,” he told Utility Dive. “I knew that, [but] went forward anyway, because I thought it was the right thing to do. I don’t know for certain that that is the reason that the action was taken,” but if it was, “it would have been totally worth it.”

In his interview with the Post, Chatterjee added that he “made very clear early on in my tenure that I was concerned about climate change and wanted to take concrete steps to mitigate carbon emissions. But I did not believe in heavy-handed regulations, subsidies, or mandates.” Through that lens, he supported carbon pricing in mid-October as a measure that would not “degrade market efficiency”, as he felt other anti-pollution regulations might do.

This would be the same FERC chair who was a sometimes an aggressive proponent for coal and gas, the Post says.

FERC will play an important role in President-elect Joe Biden’s climate agenda if the Democrats fail to take a majority in the Senate. “Without the control of the Senate, which it looks likely he won’t have, Biden is likely to look to FERC and its Democratic chair to achieve many of his climate and energy goals,” said energy lawyer Christine Wyman.



in Clean Electricity Grid, Energy / Carbon Pricing & Economics, Legal & Regulatory, Off-Grid, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

/Piqusels
Finance & Investment

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 30, 2023
114
Ryan Turnbull/Facebook
Legal & Regulatory

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
10
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr
Jobs & Training

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
11

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
2.3k
Crenaissanceman/wikimedia commons

Electric School Buses Boost School Attendance, Deliver Emergency Power

May 7, 2023
398
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 30, 2023
455
/Piqusels

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 30, 2023
114
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 30, 2023
308
Pexels/pixabay

Engineers Replace Sand in Concrete with Disposable Diapers

May 30, 2023
58

Recent Posts

Ryan Turnbull/Facebook

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
10
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
11
David/flickr

Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act

May 30, 2023
9
Nicolas Rénac/Flickr

Climate Change to Cut Coffee Growing Lands by Over 50%

May 30, 2023
15
ValiGreceanu/Pixabay

Report Urges Tax Hike for Luxury Air Travel, ‘Pets on Jets’

May 30, 2023
12
Jörg Möller/Pixabay

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
75
Next Post
/Pxfuel

Global Food System Could Drive Emissions Past Paris Agreement Targets

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}