GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE

Groups Call for Changes in Transmission Title

A coalition headed by electric utilities, renewable energy developers, labor unions and environmental groups wants changes in the Senate energy bill.

The group says language in the legislation designed to ensure that transmission costs are proportional to the economic benefits could unintentionally hamstring development of alternative energy because utilities couldn't justify the rates to regulators. 

The American Clean Energy Leadership Act, passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, requires renewable energy developers to prove that transmission costs “are reasonably proportionate to measurable economic and reliability benefits."  But renewable energy advocates fear that standard doesn't take into account other benefits of alternative energy, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering imports of foreign oil. 

The groups -- which include American Electric Power, the American Wind Energy Association, the Utility Workers Union of America, and the Sierra Club -- sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., urging them to change the language to make it more encompassing of what they see as the added benefits of new transmission lines and renewable energy.  

The standard, as written, would "impose on renewable energy developers an anti-competitive test never applied in ratemaking for transmission serving incumbent power plants, while trapping renewable resources indefinitely in analytical gridlock," the letter said.  A copy was also sent to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Energy Committee ranking member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

“By changing the standard we use to measure transmission benefits, Congress will tie regulators’ hands, and that in turn will significantly limit investment in both transmission and the energy resources that need it,” said Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association.  

The groups said that more than 300,000 megawatts of proposed wind projects and over 15,000 MW of proposed solar projects were unable to move forward because of a lack of investment in the U.S. transmission grid. 

Read the letter to congressional leaders here.