Top US Energy Officials Appear To Be Stonewalling FOIA Requests For Secret White House Meetings
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has appeared to stonewall an information request from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) asking for correspondence between Chairman Richard Glick and White House officials in light of the agency’s recent climate-related pipeline policies.
“I am concerned about an apparent lack of transparency at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,” IER President Tom Pyle wrote to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee leadership on May 25.
“Given that the White House has announced their intention to nominate Chairman Glick to another full term on the commission, it is of the utmost importance that this committee determine whether Commissioner Glick was indeed being truthful when he denied any White House involvement in the development of the controversial pipeline policy statements,” Pyle said.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has appeared to put off an information request related to the agency’s communications with White House officials.
The Institute for Energy Research (IER), a Washington, D.C.-based energy policy group, requested copies of all email correspondence between FERC Chairman Richard Glick and the White House beginning in September 2021, in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated March 29, according to documents shared with The Daily Caller News Foundation. The IER filed the request after Glick said under oath, during a March 3 Senate hearing, that he hadn’t consulted with any Biden administration higher-ups about implementing policies blocking domestic natural gas pipeline development.
“Absolutely not,” Glick — who President Joe Biden nominated to lead the commission in early 2021 — said in response to a question from Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy about potential communications with “anyone higher up in the administration” regarding FERC’s recent pipeline policy proposal.
On Feb. 17, the Democratic-majority FERC approved two measures to require more stringent climate and greenhouse gas emissions analyses of natural gas pipelines prior to approval. Glick characterized the policy change as “long overdue” in a statement at the time.
IER asked FERC to provide Glick’s correspondence with the White House by April 26, 20 weekdays after filings the FOIA request. However, nearly three months have elapsed since the initial FOIA request, FERC has delayed its response and IER said the agency has yet to provide the documents
IER President Tom Pyle said he was concerned the commission was employing delaying tactics to avoid complying with the information request in a letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin and Ranking Member John Barrasso on May 25.
“I am concerned about an apparent lack of transparency at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,” he wrote to the senators on May 25.
“Despite FERC’s own tracking numbers indicating its FOIA officer is not overburdened, and despite a history of being a remarkably timely processor of FOIA requests, FERC has failed to offer even the most basic required information in response to any of IER’s FOIA requests,” Pyle continued. “FERC has instead offered what appear to be delaying tactics.”
https://dailycaller.com/2022/06/17/richard-glick-ferc-pipeline-institute-for-energy-research/