{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://casten.house.gov/media/press-releases/casten-debuts-new-hot-ferc-summer-hit-tune-work-rihanna", "Casten Debuts New Hot FERC Summer Hit to the Tune of \u201cWork\u201d by Rihanna", "2022-12-13", "2022", "2022-12", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Sean Casten", "C001117", "casten.house.gov", "casten", "https://casten.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) revived his viral Hot FERC Summer campaign and unveiled his latest hit \u2013 to the tune of Rihanna\u2019s hit single \u201cWork\u201d \u2013 to emphasize the importance of a fully staffed FERC and warn of impending gridlock.\n\nWith current FERC Chairman Richard Glick\u2019s term set to expire at the end of the year, Rep. Casten\u2019s speech highlighted the danger of a deadlocked FERC and urged the White House and the Senate to be ready to speedily confirm a 5th FERC Commissioner at the start of the new Congress if Chairman Glick cannot be reconfirmed.\n\n\u201cAnd now we\u2019re on the verge of freezing again. This time because the Senate has failed to act to reconfirm Chairman Glick. Just at the moment when we need to expedite transmission permitting reform, to ensure cheap, reliable energy and fix power markets,\u201d said Rep. Casten.\n\n\u201cTo my colleagues in the Senate, the eyes of the nation, and of this chamber are on you. We will never, no never neglect you. We do not hold your past against you. But you need to get this done done done done done done,\u201d Rep. Casten continued.\n\nYou can watch his full speech by clicking here.\n\nIn July 2021, Rep. Casten declared the start of \"Hot FERC Summer\" with speeches inspired by Megan Thee Stallion's Hot Girl Summer and later Fergie's Fergalicious--leading his colleagues in a viral campaign to raise public awareness of FERC's crucial role in transitioning to a clean energy economy and urge President Biden to nominate a climate-focused 5th FERC commissioner with the urgency the Climate Crisis demands. Following Casten's FERCalicious speech in August, President Biden announced his nomination of Willie Phillips, Chairman of the District of Columbia Public Service Commission to FERC\u2014a move that tipped the Commission Democrat for the first time in years. Rep. Casten concluded the inaugural Hot FERC Summer with \u201cFERCin\u2019 9 to 5\u201d.\n\nA full transcript of Rep. Casten\u2019s speech can be found below.\n\nI rise today in recognition of the\u2026 work\u2026 we did to pass the Inflation Reduction Act \u2013 the single largest investment in climate action in American history.\n\nThanks to the IRA, not only will we see expanded access to lower energy costs, but we\u2019ll also lower emissions and give our children a better shot at an inhabitable planet.\n\nBut if we\u2019re going to build all that clean generation and connect it to all those new loads, from electric vehicles to heat pumps\u2026 we\u2019re going to have to enhance our electric grid. And that\u2019s not going to happen without an independent, fully staffed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission \u2013 or \u2018FERC\u2019 as they say in the streets.\n\nNow you all remember that last year, as we worked on what became the Inflation Reduction Act, the White House hadn\u2019t acted to fill a vacancy and FERC was frozen into inaction. We needed a Hot FERC Summer, and this chamber - along with Megan Thee Stallion, Fergie and Dolly Parton - delivered.\n\nAnd now we\u2019re on the verge of freezing again. This time because the Senate has failed to act to reconfirm Chairman Glick. Just at the moment when we need to expedite transmission permitting reform, to ensure cheap, reliable energy and fix power markets\u2026 FERC is again on the brink of being deadlocked.\n\nAnd so, with a little help from Rihanna this time, [LIFT SIGN] it is my duty to once again remind the Legislative Branch of our desperate need to FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC.\n\nClimate change is urgent. Capital markets are mobilizing in response to the Inflation Reduction Act. There is no time to have us lurking.\n\nTo be blunt, Madame Chair, I do nuh like it, and you know I\u2019ve dealt with it the nicest\u2026 but this delay is nuh righteous\u2026 and now we\u2019re in a crisis.\n\nA deadlocked FERC could eliminate up to 80% of the emissions reductions created by the IRA. We need them working now to ensure that we can rapidly bolster interregional grid connections, shorten interconnection queues, and reform the siting and cost allocation processes that doom so many projects today.\n\nSing with me, Madame Chair. We gotta FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC.\n\nTo my colleagues in the Senate, the eyes of the nation, and of this chamber are on you. We will never, no never neglect you. We do not hold your past against you. But you need to get this done done done done done done.\n\nOur utilities, our electricians, our consumers and our planet believed you when you said that failure to ensure comprehensive permitting reform was \u201cnot an option\u201d. But now they are asking whether you really believed that. Did you really mean it when you said you\u2019d give them something that they\u2019d never seen? Or are they right now when they cry that this is just a dream of something that you\u2019ve never been?\n\nIt is time for the Senate to give our energy markets reasons to believe in all their dreams, their adoration. They don\u2019t have much more patience.\n\nWe need them to Con-firm, firm, firm, firm, firm firm.\n\nA person who will work, work, work, work, work, work.\n\nTo ensure that we can FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC, FERC.\n\nMadame Speaker, what else can I say? I\u2019m tryin\u2019, babe.\n\nThank you and I yield back.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:32:05Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://casten.house.gov/media/press-releases/casten-debuts-new-hot-ferc-summer-hit-tune-work-rihanna"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0596389658749104, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}