President Biden has nominated former Massachusetts Undersecretary of Energy and Climate Solutions, Judy Chang, to be a FERC Commissioner. Ms. Chang is possibly best well-known for a 2018 comment staking out the position that because New England would move away from natural gas within the next five years it was irresponsible to invest in pipelines. At the time—let alone six years later—that is an odd stance for anyone who aspires to serve in a body responsible for ensuring the development of abundant supplies of natural gas at reasonable prices. Related, FERC is most recently known for ‘doing an EPA,’ i.e., “unlawfully supporting climate goals that Congress never approved.”
With Massachusetts’ Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs, which Ms. Chang previously helmed, yet to move on a contemporary, similar request, GAO notes the Commonwealth’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has released some records which do open a window onto that office’s working relationship with a renewable energy trade group called Advanced Energy United.
AEU has recently been shown to be the matchmaker for Michael Bloomberg’s operation out of NYU, the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, to place activist ‘staff’ in progressive PSC/PUC offices to advance their aligned ‘climate’ agenda’, just as it did in AG offices.
Advanced Energy United used to be called Advanced Energy Economy. A Tom Steyer Joint, per his counsel:
GAO looks forward to MA OEE releasing the requested public records.