Former Colorado regulator Ron Binz, nominated for FERC chairman, said he was bullish on natural gas and expects applications for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals to proceed through the agency as usual.

“I have spoken to several LNG exporters and have expressed my interest in making sure that applications make it through the FERC [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] as expeditiously as possible,” Binz said.

Binz, who has a reputation as a supporter of renewable fuels and who joined in Colorado’s crackdown on coal-fired power generation, ran into some tough questioning Tuesday at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing into his nomination for FERC chairman. Coal interests have lobbied heavily against his nomination.

Binz was queried by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) about a remark earlier in his career that natural gas would be a dead end fuel by 2035. Barrasso said if that was Binz’s attitude he might be inclined to slow down or put off the FERC approval process for LNG plants, since they would be expected to operate well into the future.

Binz said the projects would be judged “on their merits” and not on his opinion. He said he was fully supportive of the development of natural gas resources.

Some of his past comments about natural gas have come back to haunt him, Binz said, but he added that they had initially been taken out of context. “I should take on directly the quote that has been repeated most often and that is I expressed a concern that natural gas could be [at] a ‘dead end’ in 2035.” But that is only if carbon capture and sequestration technology is not developed or perfected by then.

“I think that there’s a very good chance that the technology will be invented or perfected by that time,” Binz said. He thinks natural gas could be the “near-perfect fuel” for the next couple of decades, and carbon capture and sequestration will make it a “permanently good” fuel.

That remark didn’t pacify Barrasso. “You are saying that the future of natural gas, not just coal, but natural gas, depends on carbon capture and sequestration — a technology that [is] not currently available, not currently economically viable, not commercially viable — may never be for natural gas,” he said.

Colorado’s two Democratic senators showed up before the committee in support of Binz’s nomination. But leading Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, citing Binz’s alleged connections with a green lobbying firm, said she wouldn’t support his nomination. Murkowski said she had learned that a “shadow team of lobbying experts” had prepped Binz for his FERC confirmation hearing. “Reluctantly, I don’t think I’m going to be able to support your nomination.”

Murkowski said she had serious concerns about reports that the San Francisco-based GreenTech Action Fund, a political action committee backing renewable energy initiatives, retained a public relations firm to head off Binz’s critics. “This kind of paid effort for and with the cooperation of the nominee should not become the new normal” in the confirmation process. “FERC is an independent agency. It must remain an independent agency,” Murkowski said.

Binz countered that he was “paying no one…I have attempted to operate as independently as possible.”

He defended his record on coal-fired power. “You might think with all the rhetoric [that’s been] written about me that I went out with a sledge hammer and personally closed the coal plants” in Colorado, Binz said. Nothing could be further from the truth. The generation plants of Public Service of Colorado are 40% coal, 30% gas-fired and the remaining fueled by renewables and hydro, he said.