Hi all, in advance of the expected vote today at 4:00pm ET on Bernard McNamee’s nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), bumping up the toolkit CAC circulated before his hearing, attached. Message guidance pasted below, as well.

CAC TALKING POINTS

Donald Trump’s FERC nominee would be a rubber stamp on the Trump administration’s agenda to bail out their dirty energy cronies at the expense of our health and pocketbooks.

President Trump nominated industry-insider Bernard L. McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). If confirmed, McNamee would be a rubber stamp on Trump’s agenda to force taxpayers to foot the bill for their coal company bailout scheme - all at the expense of a cleaner energy future.

• Bernard L. McNamee is an industry insider who previously served as a lawyer to the utility industry. He also led Texas’s participation in a lawsuit to challenge the lifesaving Clean Power Plan – which set the first ever federal limits on carbon pollution from power plants and encourages the development of cleaner, safer energy.
• If confirmed, McNamee would be a rubber stamp on Trump ’s agenda to tip the scales in favor of big coal companies like Murray Energy CEO Bob Murray at the expense of cleaner energy sources.
• McNamee’s nomination is just another step in the Trump administration’s plan to create an uneven playing field that favors big polluters.
  • Earlier this year, Trump’s DOE pushed FERC to adopt a coal company bail out scheme that would prop up the failing coal industry, forcing taxpayers to foot the bill.
  • Although Trump’s own FERC commissioners saw through this market manipulation scheme and unanimously rejected it, McNamee’s nomination would put a political supporter of this coal company bail out scheme on the Commission, essentially giving the industry an inside track to secure it in the future.
  • Additionally, if the Senate confirms McNamee, it will be the first time in decades the Commission would have no members with state level energy regulatory experience.

• The reality is that Trump’s dirty energy cronies are struggling to compete with cleaner energy sources in the free market on the merits. That’s why they need rubber stamps like McNamee on FERC – to prop up big polluters. In return for this blatant corporate cronyism, Americans will get more dangerous pollution and more expensive, dirty energy.

Best,

Lia