The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved President Donald Trump’s pending nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission mostly along party lines.
Laura Swett and David LaCerte received support from all committee Republicans and Maine Independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, in a 12-8 vote.
Ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said he normally would have supported Swett’s nomination, but that recent Trump administration actions to halt work on permitted renewable energy projects has forced him to exert some sort of pushback.
“I would have voted for her, I told [Swett] this, but they have stopped work orders on fully permitted projects and that is abusive and outrageous,” Heinrich said after the hearing. “It’s outrageous that people who came before our committee and said the right things, like the secretary of Interior and the secretary of Energy, and then they’re doing this bullshit.”
