PROVIDENCE — The Senate committee vetting three of Gov. Dan McKee’s nominees for the state Energy Efficiency Council chose to hold two of them for further study on Tuesday.

Sue AnderBois, a Democrat campaigning for the office of lieutenant governor and a sitting Providence City Council member, has served on the council since 2021.

But on Monday, much to her surprise, she found out she might not be serving on the council anymore when someone sent her the agenda for the Senate’s Environment and Agriculture Committee, which featured three new nominees for the council — one of whom was replacing AnderBois.

AnderBois said when she opened the agenda, she was expecting new nominees for the council’s three open slots, because the council, which is supposed to have 11 members, had started to run into quorum problems and needed all seats filled.

“It’s not what I was expecting to see at all,” said AnderBois of the agenda in an interview with ecoRI News on Tuesday night. “I did not get a heads-up from the governor’s office.”

AnderBois is running against incumbent Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos in the Democratic primary. Matos has served in the office since she was chosen by McKee in 2021. AnderBois said Tuesday if she won election, she would resign from the energy efficiency council.

McKee was proposing to replace AnderBois with University of Rhode Island professor Daniel Carrigg, who had previously worked as the chief of program development in the state Office of Energy Resources, which works closely with the council.

The Energy Efficiency Council provides oversight and public input on Rhode Island’s suite of energy efficiency programs, which help homeowners, businesses, and other ratepayers save money by using less energy. The programs include weatherization, free home energy audits, and often rebates and incentives for newer, more energy-efficient appliances like refrigerators and ovens.

Members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. AnderBois wasn’t the only surprise name slated for replacement on the agenda; a nominee to replace Priscilla De La Cruz, another veteran of the council and chief of Providence’s office of sustainability, was also on the agenda.

AnderBois said she had yet to talk to anyone from the governor’s office, but said she thought she had been targeted for replacement because of her opposition to McKee’s proposed cuts to state energy efficiency programs (the House version of the budget recently unveiled eliminated the program cuts).

“I’ve always pushed for fully funding the programs,” AnderBois said. “The more you fund them the more ratepayers save, and that’s a good thing to do.”

The governor’s office did not respond to inquiries from ecoRI News asking the reason for replacing AnderBois or whether the governor’s office told AnderBois she was being replaced on the council.

McKee’s picks run contrary to what the current Energy Efficiency Council recommended earlier this year. In a memo dated March 10 sent to McKee, the council recommended AnderBois, De La Cruz, and council member Tom Magliocchetti be reappointed.

Neither AnderBois nor De La Cruz are headed for that figurative ice floe just yet. The Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee, in a rare move, chose to hold the appointment of Carigg and Donna Marie Rook, the administrator for family and adult services at the Department of Human Services, who was nominated to replace De La Cruz.

“I’m looking forward to seeing these nominees again,” committee chair Sen. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown, said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Hopefully, we can get this paperwork straightened out. We don’t want to lose good people on the Energy Efficiency Council.”

Interestingly, during her hearing, Rook herself expressed surprise that she was replacing De La Cruz.

“I just want to really point out that I am not an expert in this field,” Rook said. “But I was told when I got the call that I was actually filling a vacancy for the low-income families, which is why I’m talking about the work that I do, which mostly focuses on low-income families as part of this process, and the housing stability pilot, and what we became aware of regarding the utility burdens.”

Both had powerful allies: Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, spoke in opposition to removing AnderBois and De La Cruz from the council, crediting AnderBois with helping start Climate Jobs RI, a coalition of environmental and labor organizations, and the passing of the Act on Climate law.

“It does not seem to make sense to me in my organization to replace one person with another of equal, if not better, qualifications,” Crowley said during the committee hearing. “If the commission itself does important work for the state of Rhode Island with an important mandate, it’s moving pieces around when we’re not addressing the openings and the quorum problems that they’ve had.”

Emily Koo, state director of the Acadia Center, who had been recommended by the Energy Efficiency Council for appointment, said she was as surprised as anyone else when she heard AnderBois and De la Cruz were getting replaced.

“There’s a cost-benefit test for every portfolio that will be cheaper than the cost of supply that you would otherwise have to buy and the nature of that has become increasingly divergent and in conflict with efforts by the governor and others to arbitrarily cap or limit the nature of the program,” Koo told lawmakers. “That’s why we’ve seen the recent erosion of the ability of the Energy Efficiency Council to provide sufficient oversight and to even meaningfully influence the outcomes of the energy efficiency programs.”

It’s unusual for the Energy Efficiency Council or energy efficiency programs to become the center of a game of political football. In recent years the council has opposed drastic cuts proposed by Rhode Island Energy to kneecap its programs and raised flags over OER’s procurement process for a third-party administrator.

“I’m surprised, but really, really excited about it, grateful that I get to continue to serve, at least until it comes up again,” said AnderBois, reacting to the news of the Senate committee holding her replacement’s nomination.

Meanwhile, Magliocchetti is being replaced by Melissa Travis, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association. Travis’ appointment moved forward to the Senate floor on Tuesday.

Both Carigg and Rook’s nominations were held for further study.