"It’s not unusual for think tanks, lobbyists, PR firms and deep-pocketed foundations to draw battle lines when the president nominates a new agency head — unless the agency is an obscure regulatory body with an ungainly nickname like 'FERC.'"
"But Ron Binz’s nomination to chair the five-person Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is already breaking new ground as it becomes caught up in a larger struggle over the Obama administration’s policies on climate change, fossil fuels and Wall Street wrongdoing.
So far the drama has included a Wall Street Journal editorial that denounced the former Colorado utility regulatory as “radical” for his past attempts to shut down coal plants, a stern rebuttal from a dozen former Republican and Democratic FERC commissioners, and a green energy nonprofit’s eyebrow-raising decision to hire a public relations firm to support Binz’s confirmation. His case has also drawn the interest of a libertarian-leaning energy group that has gotten some of its past money from the billionaire Koch brothers, as well as lobbying powerhouses like the group that represents the nation’s electric cooperatives."
Darius Dixon reports for Politico August 21, 2013.
SEE ALSO:
"Coal Interests Aim To Defeat Obama's Nominee To Key Energy Post" (Huffington Post)
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