In a narrow 50-49 vote, the US Senate on December 6 confirmed
Bernard L. McNamee, the current head of the US Department of
Energy's Office of Policy, to join the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission. Mr. McNamee, the third Republican on the
five-member Commission, was nominated by President Donald Trump in
October to fill the vacant seat formerly occupied by former
Commissioner Robert Powelson, who stepped down earlier this year.
Once Mr. McNamee is sworn in, the Commission will return to full
strength, with two Democratic and three Republican appointees.
Mr. McNamee's nomination to the Commission has made
headlines in recent months, in part because of his prior
involvement with a Trump administration proposal on cost recovery
for baseload generators in organized markets on the basis of fuel
security and power system resilience. Although the original
administration proposal was rejected by the Commission earlier this
year, grid resiliency and fuel security issues
