Three major natural gas associations have called on Senate leaders to push for “speedy confirmation” of Commissioner Suedeen Kelly to a five-year term on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The American Gas Association, Natural Gas Supply Association and the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America urged the Senate to “approve her nomination before adjourning for the fall election.”

In a letter on Wednesday to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), the three groups said Kelly “has demonstrated an impressive grasp of the issues and a willingness to be engaged in developing constructive solutions to the nation’s energy challenges.” In addition, she has lent a “steady, firm hand at FERC and [has helped] shape a balanced regulatory agenda.”

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted out Kelly’s nomination in June, but Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-ID) quickly placed a hold on the nomination when it reached the Senate floor, preventing senators from confirming her until his concerns are addressed. Craig’s hold still is in place.

Craig has threatened to keep the hold on Kelly, a Democrat, until Senate Democrats allow votes on two Republican judicial nominees, William Meyers to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Al Lance to the Veterans Court of Appeals.

Kelly, who joined the Commission in November 2003, served out the remainder of a term of a prior Commissioner that expired on June 30 of this year. The White House in April re-nominated her to a full-five-year term that would end on June 30, 2009.

While the Craig hold stays in place, Kelly is permitted to actively serve on the Commission under a grace period that will run until Congress adjourns for the year.

The Senate is expected to recess on Oct. 8 for the fall elections and then return for a lame duck session in mid-November, a Senate Energy Committee spokesman told NGI. At the latest, he believes Kelly will be confirmed by the end of the lame duck session. “These things at the end have a way of sorting themselves out…We’re pretty confident” that she will be confirmed before the end of the current session of the 108th Congress, he said.

But if it isn’t sorted out, the committee spokesman said the president in January would have to re-nominate Kelly, and she would have to go through the confirmation process again. Kelly would not be allowed to sit on the Commission during this period.

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