Ex-Energy Regulators Urge Supreme Court to Preserve Independence

Former chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signed a brief Thursday urging the US Supreme Court to deny President Donald Trump the ability to fire independent agency members.

Congress has established that members of independent agencies can’t be removed by the president unless due to “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” and maintaining those “for-cause removal protections” is in the best interests of consumers and producers, the brief said.

“Amici contend that eliminating for-cause removal protections would risk transforming FERC into a partisan political body whose priorities flip every election cycle,” according to the brief from a ...