A man for Obama's FERCed up climate war

Opinion Journal:

These columns recently interrupted the coronation for Ron Binz to become one of President Obama's key energy regulators, and apparently reporting on his record is a violation of Capitol Hill decorum. We're happy to have the story to ourselves because there is so much more that Senators ought to scrutinize before they vote on his nomination this fall.

"Ron Binz's Rules for Radicals" (July 30) questioned his fitness to lead the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, whose narrow mandate involves interstate energy transmission and protecting the U.S. electric grid's reliability and affordability. The White House wants to conscript FERC for the climate wars—and now environmentalists and crony capitalists are teaming up to install their man inside this supposedly independent body.

They've found a lot to like in Mr. Binz. His background includes a collusive deal with an electric utility he regulated in Colorado that shut down coal power plants with an upside for the utility. He's mused about the rule of law as a nuisance when regulators want to exercise a "legislative role," while his global warming beliefs are so extreme that he calls even natural gas a "dead end" fuel.

Our reporting on all of this was too much for a dozen former FERC commissioners, both Democrats and Republicans. In a letter we published—a version is being circulated in the Senate—they assert that Mr. Binz fits FERC's "long nonpartisan tradition" and "will be a fair and impartial judge."

The 12 commissioners offer no evidence for that proposition other than an appeal to their own authority, but that's not their most notable omission. They somehow forgot to mention that, since their FERC tenure, most of them have taken the revolving door to become lobbyists, strategic advisers, utility executives and white-shoe attorneys with business in front of FERC.
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... the Energy Foundation has an affiliated political committee called the Green Tech Action Fund, which has taken the very unusual step of hiring an outside public relations firm on behalf of Mr. Binz. We couldn't find anyone who could think of a similar executive branch precedent, at least for an agency as obscure as FERC. Both Mr. Binz and the flacks, VennSquared Communications—run by Democratic hand Michael Meehan—deny coordinating with one another.

Another story in Politico, which has become a community bulletin board for the pro-Binz crowd, suggested the publicist was necessary to fend off scary old us. Thanks for the compliment. But the PR firm hire was made (and reported in the trade press) well before we said a word—and one might reasonably wonder about the daisy chain between Mr. Binz and his former client, the Energy Foundation.

The Green Tech Action Fund is one of those 501(c)(4) political arms that don't have to disclose their donors, though it has been linked in media reports to California billionaire Tom Steyer, who is increasingly active in environmental causes. The Center for Responsive Politics ranks the action fund as one of the top 10 U.S. dark-money organizations by spending.
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The green movement has morphed into the anti energy left.  They are trying to destroy traditional energy and are in favor of inefficient alternative energy.  While they are active politically it does not appear they are on the IRS radar or "be on the lookout for" screen.