NC Senate panel endorses van der Vaart for Utilities Commission slot
The North Carolina Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee voted Wednesday morning to confirm Donald van der Vaart as a member of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, forwarding the resolution to the Senate Select Committee on Nominations.
Appointed by Republican Treasurer Brad Briner, van der Vaart previously served as North Carolina's environment secretary. He's a climate skeptic who was considered for EPA administrator during the first Trump administration.
Van der Vaart began his state government career with two decades in the state's Division of Air Quality. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory promoted him to secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality in 2015, NC Newsline previously reported.
His term on the Utilities Commission, if confirmed, would start July 1 of this year and expire on June 30, 2031.
The Utilities Commission is an agency responsible for regulating the rates and services of all investor-owned public utilities in North Carolina. It's the oldest regulatory body in state government, according to its website.
At Wednesday's meeting van der Vaart was asked a handful of mostly friendly questions.
'What specific strategies do you think you'll employ to ensure your decisions remain impartial, evidence-driven, and resistant to any undue influence from any of the stakeholder groups?' Sen. Buck Newton (R-Greene, Wayne, Wilson) asked.
Van der Vaart said he would rely on the structure that's currently in place, which includes a 'capable' staff that works independently.
'I'm very much interested in using the transparency to the public to provide a forum where free discussions can be not only had, but also viewed,' he said.
He's faced criticism in the past due to a potential conflict of interest with his wife's work.
Van der Vaart served as the chief administrative judge on a DEQ dispute over the regulation of a toxic chemical in September. His wife Sandra is chair of the North Carolina Chamber Legal Institute, a prominent lobbying group opposed to PFAS regulation, the Port City Daily reported.
Newton also asked Van der Vaart to share his thoughts on Senate Bill 261, which would eliminate the interim goal for Duke Energy to cut its carbon emissions by 2030.
'A lot of times, goals and mandates get conflated. Do you see this as a goal or some sort of a mandate?' asked Newton.
Van der Vaart said the interim goal does provide the state with 'offramps' if things don't go as planned.
'I think if you look back a little bit into this, you'll see that some of the load predictions and the requirements that were anticipated in the past turned out to be somewhat inaccurate. Now the 2050 goal appears to be a mandate,' Van der Vaart responded.
Critics of SB 261 have argued that not having an intermediate goal could make it harder to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The bill was fast tracked through the Senate in March, but has yet to see action in the House this session.
Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake) joked that van der Vaart may hold the most degrees out of all nominees in front of the legislature: a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Juris Doctor from North Carolina Central University, a master's in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University, and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Chaudhuri also asked what van der Vaart thought was the most important role for the utilities commission.
'The most important role, despite the fact that we regulate a number of utility functions, is to deliver reliable and affordable energy within the confines that are mandated,' van der Vaart said. 'We need to work very hard to maintain the affordability of our electricity… If we didn't have a consumer advocacy function in North Carolina, then we would be ill served.'
Asked about the rising demand for natural gas and pipeline capacity to meet industrial growth, Van der Vaart said this was an issue of critical importance in sustaining the electric grid.
'I think that one of my interests will be to determine and to convince myself that we have the kind of physical capacity and redundancy from a national security standpoint to be able to continue to deliver manufacturing support electricity and various other residential uses of natural gas reliably in the future.'
Environmental groups and clean energy advocates have raised concerns about the build out of natural gas pipelines, amid worries about the impacts on water, air and habitats, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Along with voting to confirm van der Vaart, the committee heard a resolution to approve Reid Wilson as the DEQ secretary, following appointment from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. This portion was 'discussion only' and the panel did not take a vote.
Wilson formerly served as secretary for the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources from 2021 to 2024. Before that, he was DNCR's chief deputy secretary from 2017 to 2020. He's been serving as DEQ secretary on an interim basis while awaiting confirmation.
Clayton Henkel contributed to this report.
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