Hoeven urges FERC chair to support domestic energy producers

In his latest effort to advance critically needed pipelines and transmission lines, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) met with the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week to urge him to empower American energy production.

“With skyrocketing energy prices and inflation under the Biden administration, we pressed Chairman [Richard] Glick to take the handcuffs off our energy producers and strengthen access to reliable and affordable energy for homes and businesses,” Sen. Hoeven said on Nov. 4. 

Costs could be lowered for consumers by expediting the approval process for energy infrastructure projects to get natural gas to market, he said. In addition, FERC must properly value reliable baseload power sources, including coal, especially during severe weather. 

“FERC also needs to provide permitting certainty to help get more natural gas to market, bring down energy prices, and counter the reliance of our allies on Russian natural gas,” the senator said. “North Dakota provides the energy for this nation. We need to get that energy to the market, which is vitally important in combating inflation and making our nation energy secure once again.”

Sen. Hoeven has worked to underscore the importance of streamlining the permitting process and building pipeline capacity amid forecasts that U.S. households will spend 28 percent more on natural gas for heating this winter. 

A member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the senator helped secure federal approval of the North Bakken Expansion Pipeline, which began service earlier this year. 

Sen. Hoeven is also an original cosponsor of the Simplify Timelines and Assure Regulatory Transparency (START) Act, S. 4815, comprehensive federal regulatory permitting and project review reform legislation that was sponsored by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) in September.