Binz, who previously served as an energy regulator in Colorado and who is pro-renewables, was developing a growing list of opponents, including at least half of the 22-member Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
He also made an enemy of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. The pro-coal senator and previous state governor said last month that he would vote against Binz in a confirmation vote and pointed out that Binz did not have the needed voted to clear the panel and advance to Senate vote.
“Mr Binz's record shows he strongly favors renewable [energy] over other energy sources, and he favours rising rates as part of the new economy,” Manchin said in September.
According to the Associated Press, opponents also found his viewpoints to be left-field, particularly comments that natural gas fuel may be a “dead end”
Binz made his announcement to Obama on Monday. He was first selected in June, a nomination that drew immediate criticism.
He also reportedly denied at a September confirmation hearing that he was anti-coal.
“We are grateful for Ron's willingness to serve and regret that qualified public servants continue to get obstructed by the Senate confirmation process,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in the statement announcement Binz’s withdrawal.
Binz said he pulled his name from the seat “so the president can move forward with another nominee, allowing the FERC to continue its important work with a full complement of commissioners”
The American Energy Alliance was just one group to celebrate Binz’s decision.
President Thomas Pyle called the nominee “the wrong nominee at the worst possible time for American consumers … [and his] record of radical advocacy and regulatory bias was too much to overcome, even for [Senate majority leader] Harry Reid's rubber-stamp Senate.”
Pyle also commended Manchin and fellow senator Lisa Murkowski, another Binz critic, for their approaches to his nomination.
“Every Senator who put America’s working families ahead of Harry Reid’s and the White House anti-coal, anti-natural gas agenda have served their constituents well throughout this process,” he said.
“The Obama Climate Action Plan is about restricting access to America’s vast resources of coal and natural gas, which together supply approximately two-thirds of our nation’s affordable electricity. Ron Binz was only a part of that plan, and today’s announcement in no way means that the White House is backing down.”
