WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee for a federal energy board, despite a video that shows the nominee saying that renewable energy “screws up” the nation’s electrical grid.
The Senate has approved Bernard McNamee’s nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on a 50-49 party-line vote.
McNamee now heads the Energy Department’s Office of Policy and worked on a stalled effort to bail out struggling coal and nuclear plants.
In the video, McNamee says fossil fuels and nuclear energy “keep the lights on” and that renewable energy such as wind and solar power “screws up … the physics of the grid” providing the nation’s electricity.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed McNamee after backing him in committee. Manchin says McNamee wasn’t serious enough about climate change.
