Newly Released Documents Show FERC Chairman Richard Glick is Using Two Phones to Hide Conversations with the White House

October 11, 2022

Newly released documents show that Richard Glick, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), has been using multiple phones to conduct government business and to get around transparency laws. As a federal official, all of Glick’s correspondence for FERC business should be publicly available under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), but it has become clear that he is using multiple devices to get around the law.

Chris Horner, an attorney in Washington, has roughly half-a-dozen FOIA lawsuits going against FERC. He writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Under President Biden, officials at FERC seem to use texts from personal phones to conduct work, according to phone bills, texts pried from the FERC from officials’ personal and work phones, and other records. Some seem to use only their personal phones to conduct business over text. This appears to include Chairman Richard Glick, according to texts he turned over to the FERC in response to my client’s requests. FERC appointees and even White House officials text Mr. Glick on his personal device, based on the same texts.”

Earlier this year, other FOIA requests from the Institute for Energy Research revealed that Glick had a bi-weekly standing meeting with Deputy White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi during the lead up to the release of Glick’s punishing natural gas regulation that he tried to push through in February. Now, we are learning the level of White House involvement is likely much deeper as Glick was receiving texts from White House officials on his personal phone.

Remember, FERC is supposed to be an independent agency. Glick has no reason to be talking to the White House this much. But what’s even worse, FERC officials are refusing to produce documents and hiding behind the White House.

Horner continues, “The FERC and the SEC have also refused to produce texts and chats to my clients on the grounds that the regulators must defer to the White House on what should and shouldn’t be released. This is particularly curious because these agencies are independent commissions, in whose decision making one would think the White House would have no formal role. Both agencies also refuse to produce to my clients hundreds of “chat” correspondences that officials have admitted they sent during Teams or Zoom meetings because the meetings were hosted by outside parties, either the White House or environmentalist activist groups.”

“With their massive record of failure, it’s no surprise Joe Biden and his eco-bureaucrats want to hide what they’re really doing,” said Daniel Turner, Founder and Executive Director for Power The Future. “FERC Chairman Richard Glick knows the rules and, as the head of this very important agency, he is responsible for these efforts to skirt them. And even if he wasn’t, the rogue bureaucrats accountable to literally no one but their own agenda are running the FERC. In either scenario, Richard Glick’s confirmation for a second term as chair is now in serious jeopardy. Congress needs to use their full investigative powers to find out what’s going on, not only because it’s wrong to hide the truth, but also because the American people are suffering from these decisions, and they deserve answers.”

Glick is currently renominated to continue as chairman of the FERC by President Biden. The Senate must get to the bottom of this before considering his nomination. The American people have the right to know what Glick is hiding.