With the controversy over Senate energy legislation on simmer for the time being, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a September hearing to consider the nomination of former New Mexico regulator Suedeen G. Kelly for a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The confirmation hearing for Kelly, a Democrat, is set for Sept. 9. The committee initially had scheduled the hearing for July 16, but postponed it due to the hot-button nature of negotiations over a substitute electricity title for the Senate energy bill at the time (see Daily GPI, July 14).

The Senate panel announced the new hearing date for Kelly just before the Republican-led Senate last Thursday approved comprehensive energy legislation that was crafted when the Democrats held the majority in 2002.

Assuming Kelly’s nomination is voted out of the Senate Energy Committee, Capitol Hill observers speculate that “any number of things could happen” in the Senate to stall or block her confirmation and that of fellow FERC nominee, Republican Joseph T. Kelliher, whose nomination was voted out of the Senate committee in March. Kelliher has at least one hold on his nomination, which prevents it from coming before the full Senate for a vote.

The nomination of Kelliher, a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy (DOE), has been hanging in limbo for nearly five months. Some Senate Democrats vowed to block him until the White House tapped Kelly. They want the Senate to vote on the two nominees as a package deal.

If confirmed, Kelly would fill out the remaining term of former FERC Chairman Curt Hebert Jr., who left the Commission in the summer of 2001. That term would expire on June 30, 2004. She currently is an attorney and a professor of law at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Kelliher is seeking the seat formerly held by former Commissioner Linda K. Breathitt, who departed the agency last December. His term would run until June 30, 2007.

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