The Obama Administration and the Democratic leaders of Congress signalled on February 23 that they would seek expanded government authority to develop the power grid. Officials said that the current power infrastructure impedes development of renewable energy generation.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated that he will introduce a bill that would give federal regulators the authority to override state utility regulators in order to determine proper placement of new smart grid infrastructure. The legislation will be part of other energy policy proposals that the Senate is expected to consider soon.
“We cannot let 231 state regulators hold up progress,” said Reid. Currently, state utility regulators determine where transmission infrastructure is placed. Reid said that state authorities will be included in the decision-making process but that “there may come a time when the federal government will have to step in.” This could include land seizure to make way for the smart grid.
Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore were in attendance at a clean energy conference organised by the Centre for American Progress that focused on the need to develop a national smart grid that would integrate wind and solar power from distributed sources.
Ken Salazar, Interior Secretary in the new administration, said that he was ready to allow renewable energy development on federal land and offshore, but added that the antiquated power grid that exists today is inadequate. The power grid could not handle the distribution of numerous generation sources.
“In the end, unless we are able to solve this juggernaut and deal with the transmission issue we’re simply going to be standing in place,” said Salazar at the conference.
Senator Jeff Bingaman chairs the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee and was also in attendance. The committee is responsible for developing energy legislation that would provide the federal government’s framework for the establishment of a national smart grid.
Bingaman said that he has not read Reid’s proposal but that he agrees that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission does need expanded authority to develop new power infrastructure. He added that he hopes to have a bill within the next six weeks that will address the smart grid issue and will establish requirements that utilities across the country generate a certain amount of renewable energy. By 2020 that requirement could be 20 percent.
State officials understandably are not happy with the proposals put forth by Democratic leaders. Fred Butler, chairman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and a utility regulator in New Jersey, said that state authorities would work with federal regulators but oppose the federal takeover of grid placement.
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, also spoke at the event and agreed that power infrastructure must be expanded and the smart grid developed in order to increase efficiency and allow access to distributed wind and solar energy generation. Pelosi said that a smart grid “is essential to all that we do” to increase renewable power.
George Pataki, former governor of New York, was one of the few Republicans in attendance at the conference. He agreed that the federal government must get more involved in the development and placement of new power infrastructure.
“If you try to run a wire through someone’s community, that becomes about as contentious as you get,” said Pataki. “You don’t have to take a poll – no one is going to be for it.”
Gore envisioned a power grid that would allow for new ways of power generation and distribution including allowing residents to install solar panels on their roofs and plug-in hybrid vehicles that could provide power back to the grid when needed from hi-capacity capacity.
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