Firing NRC Commissioner George Apostolakis by June 30?

Originally posted on 6/20

Just think about this with those weak kneed and cowardly democrats...it was only the rabid dog right wing extremist in the senate who stood up for the democrat's choice Apostolakis.  

Me June 11: Apostolakis must have asked the republicans for a favor, to bring it up during the meeting. The Republicans in the senate subcommittee meeting were apoplectic he wasn’t yet renominated to the NRC by Obama…they thought it disrespectful he hasn’t been notified he was going to continue to be a NRC commissioner.

A excellent choice would be William Corcoran...

My plain vanilla political choice would be Dave Lochbaum. He has been kind of kindly to the industry of late and I think he has been angling for the commissioner’s job. My best choice though would be Arnie Guntersen because he’s got such a big chip on his shoulder…he would represent the anti-nuclear establishment the best. He would take the contrary position more than Dave and he would be in all out fight against the industry until death!  He would shake them up the most, even if the commissioner was always voting 4 to 1 against him. Though Lockbaum has invaluable insider NRC experiences as he was once an employee. Bob Meyer would also be a great choice as in PROS…

Heaven would be having both commissioner Lochbaum and Guntersen!!!

My secondary choices would be having politician, a union official or a neutral nuclear industry CEO or VP. To die for, would be getting somebody in there who actually once had or has a reactor license.

The best “wild man” choice of all time would be me!!!! of course!!!! Note: I was recently criminally convicted for repairing a dilapidated and loose boards on a 1920's bridge walkway, i narrowly escaped a felony!!!

"According to people in the nuclear-energy industry"...basically this is acknowledgement nobody has has any sway in the nomination process except the nuclear industry insiders.

We don't even get a token they are so insecure...

If I am nominated :) my highest priority would be that I am a tool for and of transparency!!!

Originally posted 6/11...

Basically none of these guys has any direct nuclear plant insider experience and certainly no licence operator experience....it will take them three years to come up to speed.

Do they need 60 votes or just a majority which are democrats. I be researching these guys.

Jeff Baron, an aide to retiring Rep. Henry Waxman

Can't find much on Jeff yet...

Stephen Burns, a former general counsel to the NRC:

Is this a insider nuclear industry joke, Magwood is heading to the OECD Nuclear Energy (NEA) Agency and Stephen Burns is coming out of th the same agency. Oh, Burns is the chief legal counsel and Magwood is going to be the general.

Stephen G. Burns appointed Head of Legal Affairs at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is pleased to announce that Mr. Stephen G. Burns has been appointed Head of Legal Affairs. Mr. Burns will provide legal opinions and secretariat services to the Nuclear Law Committee, advise NEA management on all legal aspects of the Agency’s operations, assist member countries in the establishment of international joint projects and contribute to the Agency's nuclear law information and education programmes. He will also provide legal assistance to the Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the field of nuclear energy and the Brussels Convention Supplementary to the Paris Convention.

Mr. Burns was appointed General Counsel of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in May 2009 after serving as the NRC’s Deputy General Counsel since 1998. As General Counsel, he was responsible for legal advice and representation for the NRC. Mr. Burns joined the NRC as an attorney in 1978 and has worked on a number of significant issues involving nuclear safety and regulation. He received the NRC Distinguished Service Award in 2001 and the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award in 1998 and 2008. Mr. Burns served as a member of the US delegation to the NEA Nuclear Law Committee. He has also been a lecturer

Global Studies Law Review 

GLOBAL NUCLEAR ENERGY LAW AND
REGULATION SYMPOSIUM 

THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI ACCIDENT:
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RESPONDS
　
STEPHEN G. BURNS 

I read this report...I know he is just representing his agency...but I don't trust him. I wouldn't vote for him with what I'd seen.

(Updated June 21) My assessment of these two...it is a typical weak kneed democrat and Obama ploy. They try to neutralized their opportunity by choosing one to please the democrats and the other to please the republicans. The NRC lawyer got to be a Republican.

If it was a republican president extremist with two republican slots open, he wouldn't blink putting in their two right wing nuclear industry extremist.

The rather moderate right wing nuclear industry extremist of the chairman and these next two democrats nominees would have the majority voting block for the next 4 of 5 years.  

Remember Obama set up Jaczko to fail in his "cap and trade" deal in the beginning of his presidency. He picked pro nuclear commissioners to appease the nuclear utilities...that is where "rat bastard Magwood" came from.

Just saying, if this was the rabid mad dog treabagger Republicans, they would take no prisoner. They would hire without a conscience two nuclear industry extremist. But you get it, when the Republican extremist take the presidency, generally their political choices are highly partisan. While when the weak kneed democrats take power, there political choices become most neutral or slightly right wing. You go though a few political cycles and this game mostly screws the democrats who voted for their democrat party...they are always selling out the democratic party.

You can see this coming from a million miles away, Obama and the Democrats will throw the House a rabid mad dog Republicans extremist a commissioner gift. We will nominate a rabid Republican extremist commissioner in the hopes of moderating the house mad dog republicans. The House will assume it is a sign of weakness, just like Putin...then the nuclear industry will hold the commissioner voting majority for the foreseeable future and they will vote like Obama never gave them the majority, you fool. Thank you Mr Obama...  

Got this right since March 2013

Epic Reform of the NRC this Year: Magwood Out

Nuclear Regulator to Leave Federal Agency

Typically political Friday night and weekend dump?

WSJ: White House Decides Not to Renominate Apostolakis as an NRC Commissioner

WASHINGTON—One of the five members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will leave the agency after the White House decided not to renominate him for a second term.

George Apostolakis, first nominated to the commission by President Barack Obama in 2010, will leave the NRC on June 30 when his term ends, according to agency spokesman Eliot Brenner.

A White House spokesman declined to comment on why the administration opted not to renominate Mr. Apostolakis, who has publicly stated he would like to continue as a commissioner. He was given notice this week from the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In a statement issued Friday, Mr. Apostolakis thanked Mr. Obama for giving him the opportunity to serve and noted the work he had done while on the commission, including work related to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant meltdown caused by a tsunami following a major earthquake in Japan.

"During this demanding period, the NRC staff continued to carry out our mission with expertise and professionalism," Mr. Apostolakis said.

Another NRC commissioner nominated by Mr. Obama in 2010, William Magwood IV, said earlier this year that he had accepted the position of director general of the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency. Mr. Brenner said Mr. Magwood would leave the NRC by late summer, and the NEA said he would begin Sept. 1.

Messrs. Apostolakis and Magwood are both Democrats, and the White House hasn't announced who Mr. Obama intends to nominate to fill their seats. The nominees will require Senate confirmation.

According to people in the nuclear-energy industry, the White House is considering nominating Jeff Baron, an aide to retiring Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), who is the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Stephen Burns, a former general counsel to the NRC.

Platts:

 A nuclear industry source said Thursday that Jeff Baron, a Democratic congressional staffer, and Stephen Burns, former NRC general counsel, are being "vetted" as possible nominees for Apostolakis' seat.

Baron is staff director for energy and the environment with the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. Burns retired from NRC in March 2012 and is currently head of the legal affairs section in the secretariat at OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency.

Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, the senior Republican member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees NRC, said during a committee hearing June 4 that he was "concerned with the lack of communication" with the Senate from the White House and NRC on potential nominees to the agency.

Vitter said keeping those positions filled "must remain a priority," and he urged the administration "to act quickly so the commission can continue its important work without interruption or distraction."

Both Apostolakis and Magwood are Democrats, as is NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane. Commissioners William Ostendorff and Kristine Svinicki are Republicans. The Atomic Energy Act specifies that no more than three commissioners can be from the same political party, so the new appointees are likely to be Democrats.

The commission has previously conducted business with two commissioner slots vacant.

June 11:

What are the Cantor ramifications for the NRC commissioner nominations and President Obama?

WSJ: Eric Cantor Loses to Tea Party's David Brat in Virginia Primary

Will the Republicans be willing to make a deal or will they be more ideologically strident on the NRC. Will the ideologues be controversial adverse...just want to make a deal to shut everyone one up.  

I think this will drive the House and Senate Republican nuclear ideologues more to the right...hate Obama even more. Will the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public works have more open warfare or less?

Will the House yank funding from the NRC as a show of force? 

Originally posted on 6/6

What is his role in nominating the NRC commission?

 

 

Harry Reid Shapes Energy Regulator With an Eye to Nevada Industry

Senate Leader Uses Influence to Try to Develop His State's Renewables Firms

As majority leader of the Senate, the Nevada Democrat is one of the most powerful people in Washington. Over the past year, he has on two occasions scotched the White House's pick of leader for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a low-profile agency that oversees the nation's electric grid, and he has successfully pushed for other preferred candidates.

His efforts will be tested as soon as this week when the Senate's energy committee votes on whether to confirm Norman Bay as FERC chairman and Cheryl LaFleur as a commissioner. Mr. Bay is a Reid-backed candidate. The senator blocked Ms. LaFleur from getting the top job, and he is blunt about his interest in shaping FERC.

"Oh really? No kidding," Mr. Reid said. "Wow, that is amazing—that a majority leader who has a responsibility of selecting people would have some opinion as to who he suggests to the White House."

Mr. Reid's interest stems from his expressed intent to develop his state's renewable-energy industry. In 2013, Nevada ranked second in the nation for geothermal energy production and third for solar production, and 18% of its total electricity generation came from renewable, above the national average of 13%.

Nevada and the West in general, however, need more power lines to deliver renewable energy to customers. While FERC, which can have as many as five members, doesn't generally approve construction of interstate power lines, it does approve wholesale electric transmission sales and tariffs, which influence where power companies decide to build transmission lines.

Mr. Reid's attentions have roiled an agency that, like other federal regulatory bodies, is supposed to be independent from Congress and the executive branch.

"The uncertainty over the makeup of the commission has created a level of dysfunction I have not seen in my five years on the commission," said John Norris, an Obama commission appointee who also was boxed out of the chairmanship by Mr. Reid, according to people involved in the process. "The dysfunction of the Senate seems to be spilling over to those agencies Sen. Reid wants to have a controlling hand on."

A spokeswoman for Ms. LaFleur declined to comment. A White House spokesman declined to address specific interactions with Mr. Reid.

"We, of course, work closely with Sen. Reid and other members of the Senate to nominate and confirm the best, most qualified candidate for open positions across the government," said White House spokesman Matt Lehrich. "When it comes to FERC, the president chose Norman Bay because he is a proven leader and dedicated public servant with expertise in the energy markets, a tough, evenhanded approach to enforcing the law, and a history of bipartisan support."

Mr. Norris was the first potential nominee for chairman to run into Mr. Reid. According to the people involved in the nominations process, the lawmaker insisted the White House not nominate Mr. Norris as chairman, in part because he had taken a position in a previous job that Mr. Reid considered too favorable to coal.

"It is a rare instance," said one former Obama administration official. "Usually the White House and Sen. Reid work together pretty well. This was a bit of hard ball."

Mr. Reid wanted instead someone from a Western state similar to Nevada, according to people familiar the matter. (Mr. Norris is an Iowan).

Last July, the White House nominated former Colorado Public Utilities Commission Chairman Ron Binz as chairman. A few months later, Mr. Binz withdrew his nomination because of opposition from Republicans and some Democrats for comments he made about supporting renewable energy over fossil fuels.

Mr. Reid also didn't take to Ms. LaFleur as chairman, contending she wouldn't adequately protect consumers from electricity-market manipulation or support building transmission lines for renewable energy. "I don't want her as chair," Mr. Reid said during a recent interview in his Washington office.

Ms. LaFleur has been acting chairman since Jon Wellinghoff, a Nevadan close to Mr. Reid, retired in late 2013. "She has done some stuff to do away with some of Wellinghoff's stuff," Mr. Reid said.

Mr. Bay is up for a vote as FERC chairman by the Senate committee as soon as Thursday, after which the full Senate would vote. Mr. Reid supports him in large part because he hails from a Western state, New Mexico. He also draws bipartisan support.

It isn't rare for lawmakers to work to shape regulatory agencies, but observers said Mr. Reid's direct line to the White House allows him to fight for who he wants on FERC behind the scenes. The senator's allies also say Washington lawmakers routinely seek to benefit the states they represent.

"You're crazy not to use it to help your constituents back home," said Eric Washburn, a principal at lobbying firm Bracewell & Giuliani who worked on energy and environment issues for Democratic senators, including Mr. Reid, for 10 years. "People may argue that is unfair, but it is the seniority system and it is what it is."

Mr. Reid's vision for FERC is broadly aimed at securing investment in renewable energy and transmission lines in the West.

He helped secure federal approval for a major renewable-energy power line in Nevada, according to former Reid aides, and supported the sale of Las Vegas-based utility NV Energy to a unit of

FERC under Mr. Wellinghoff advanced policies that in the long run help boost Nevada's renewable energy, according to Mr. Reid and his aides. One regulation that FERC approved in 2011 under Mr. Wellinghoff requires states to coordinate on transmission planning, such as new power lines, which utility experts say would help move renewable energy more easily, especially throughout the West.

 

Wellinghoff said. "And he supports Nevada becoming an exporter of these resources."

Is the NRC's great revolution beginning???

The Honorable George Apostolakis was sworn in as a Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on April 23, 2010, for a term ending on June 30, 2014.

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on June 4 urged the Obama administration to act soon to avoid a vacancy on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). 

Barrasso, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said during a committee hearing on NRC that Commissioner George Apostolakis is currently scheduled to see his term expire June 30.

So far the Obama administration has neither re-nominated Apostolakis for a new term nor nominated someone else to replace Apostolakis on the five-member panel. 

While Barrasso did not mention it, NRC will already be facing at least one vacancy in the near future. Commissioner William Magwood IV announced earlier this year that he will resign from the commission to become director general of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency. 

Magwood's current term was not scheduled to expire until June 30, 2015.

Then Magwood is quiting by summer's end...fired upwards into the better position.

Usually what is going on, it is just horse trading between the politicians. He will eventually get renominated after the deal is set.