Obama Nominates Norman Bay to Head FERC

President Obama has nominated current Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Director of Enforcement Norman Bay to head the agency, upon confirmation, replacing Jon Wellinghoff, who left his post in November and jumping him over Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFleur.

Bay’s nomination is the second to replace Wellinghoff, who left to join Portland, Ore., law firm Stoel Rives. Obama’s first nominee, former Colorado Public Utility Commission head Ron Binz, withdrew from the nomination process after his selection ran into a buzz saw of opposition, mainly from coal industry groups concerned that he would bring an activist approach to promoting renewable energy. The administration’s handling of Binz drew criticism because of its highly unusual—for FERC—cooperation with outside lobbying groups promoting his candidacy.

Bay, who served as United States Attorney for New Mexico in the early 2000s and later taught at the University of New Mexico law school, has headed FERC’s enforcement division since 2009. He has been credited with ramping up FERC’s oversight of market manipulation, an effort that has produced a number of record fines against banks and brokerage firms such as J.P. Morgan.

It is not certain what opposition Bay may face, as his record lacks the sort of overt support for renewable energy that caused Binz’s nomination to draw fire. Still, with coal industry groups facing what they see as an existential threat in the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission standards, Bay is certain to face questions on the administration’s climate change initiatives during his nomination hearing. Republicans on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee have already expressed some reservations that the president has now twice reached outside the current commissioners to find a new chair.

No date for Bay’s hearing has been set at this time.

—Thomas W. Overton, JD is a POWER associate editor (@thomas_overton, @POWERmagazine).