Bernard McNamee, Executive Director of the Office of Policy for the U.S. Department of Energy, is to be nominated by President Trump to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it was announced October 3 by the White House. He would fill the seat vacated by Commissioner Robert Powelson, who resigned from FERC in August to accept a position in the private sector.
Mr. McNamee was previously with the offices of the Attorneys General of both Virginia and Texas, served as a policy advisor to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and is a former partner with McGuireWoods, the Richmond-based law firm that includes Dominion Energy among its most prominent clients. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia.
According to Mr. McNamee’s Linked-In profile, while with McGuireWoods he “represented electric and natural gas clients before state public utility, as well as providing advice related to major policy issues facing the energy industry.”
In reporting on the announcement of McNamee’s being named by President Trump, the publication Utility Dive noted: “During his time there, McNamee wrote an Earth Day op-ed for The Hill extolling the virtues of fossil fuels, writing that ‘some suggest that we can replace fossil fuels with renewable resources to meet our needs, but they never explain how.’”