Ex-FERC pick blames ‘fictional’ picture

President Obama’s former choice to lead the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said Koch-backed groups and The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board waged a successful campaign to mischaracterize his views and record. [WATCH VIDEO]

Ron Binz, facing huge hurdles in the Senate, last week withdrew as the White House nominee to become the next FERC chairman.

“I know that they have writers on their board that are very conservative and very plugged in to the same organizations that opposed my nomination,” Binz said of the Journal, which ran several pieces attacking Binz on its opinion pages.

“I can only assume that’s the connection. They were probably the first movers in this effort to paint a fictional Ron Binz, and they were very successful at it. I am sorry to admit that, but that was a very successful campaign that The Wall Street Journal undertook,” he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on Platts Energy Week TV.

{mosads}Binz, a former Colorado utility regulator, did not have enough votes to clear the Senate’s energy committee amid opposition from Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

Critics said he was biased against coal and natural gas, and Binz’s attempts to rebut the claims did not sway his opposition at a confirmation hearing in September.

Coal industry, conservative and fossil fuel industry-backed groups such as Americans for Prosperity and the American Energy Alliance campaigned against Binz.

“They put pressure on a lot of lawmakers, they scared up a lot of things in the media, and so what I was confronted with in Washington was a caricature of me, a fictional Ron Binz that I didn’t recognize,” Binz said.

Binz said on the Platts program that nobody in the White House or the Senate asked him to step aside.

“It was my decision,” Binz said. “I could count the votes on the [Senate Energy and Natural Resources] Committee. And it was pretty clear I would not proceed past the Committee.” Binz has returned to his consulting work.

He sought to rebut claims he would have pursued an anti-fossil fuel agenda at FERC, an agency that polices power markets and regulates transmission and natural gas pipelines.

Binz noted that climate and power plant emissions policy reside elsewhere in the federal government, with FERC in a minor role. 

He said FERC, as the power grid regulator, doesn’t decide what the future mix of power sources might be, but does have an “enabler” role when it comes to renewable energy.

“It needs to remove barriers for access to the grid for the clean energy resources of the future,” Binz said.

Asked if he wants coal phased out, Binz replied:

“No, I want to see greenhouse gas emissions phased out,” and noted he has called for more federal funding to speed development of technology to trap and store carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

“I think coal is going to be a major part of our supply for quite a while,” he said.