Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to urge my colleagues to vote no on the nomination of Bernard McNamee to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. I thank my colleague from Oregon for coming out here to explain why this nomination matters and why my colleagues on both sides of the aisle should turn it down. This is a very important time as we move forward on energy policy in the United States. I am pretty sure that my constituents probably already know what the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does because, when it came to the Enron crisis, they had to count on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make sure energy markets were properly policed. In the end, the FERC did do that, protecting consumers from what were unjust and unreasonable rates. However, the fact is that a lot of Americans don't understand what the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does. That is because the job of the Commission can range from overseeing the reliability of the electricity grid to ensuring that wholesale electricity and natural gas rates are just and reasonable. That was what we argued in the Enron case. They were going to make utilities pay for 9 years on what were fraudulent contracts. We emphasized: How could fraudulent Enron contracts ever be just and reasonable if they had admitted to manipulating them? The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also oversees the licensing of hydroelectric dams and approves construction of natural gas pipelines.…”