Locating Lines to Transmit Energy Vexes Officials

February 24, 2009

By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
Across the Great Plains the wind blows incessantly, while in the remote Nevada desert the sun bears down without relief. Each holds the
potential of a vast new energy resource.
While wind turbine and solar projects are ready to capture this
new, eco-friendly energy source, where are the transmission lines to
get the power to where it is needed?
Democratic congressional leaders, a former president and his
one-time vice president, several Obama Cabinet members, energy
executives and business leaders thrashed out that very predicament at
a high- profile clean energy conference on Monday.
After two hours, a consensus seemed to emerge: The outdated
electricity grid must be modernized and expanded if President Barack
Obama's vision of dramatically increasing the country's renewable
energy resources is to be accomplished. And the federal government
will have to play a bigger role in locating high-voltage power lines
to overcome local and regional resistance.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a leading participant
in the gathering, said he will soon introduce legislation to give
federal regulators authority to override states when it comes to
locating long-distance power lines.
"We cannot let 231 state regulators hold up progress," Reid said,
referring to the members of state public utility commissions that  decide on transmission locations.
While states should be given every opportunity to participate,
"there may come a time when the federal government will have to step
in,"
said
Reid, whose state is a prime target for entrepreneurs building solar
energy projects.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also called for expansion
and modernization of the nation's power transmission system, saying
these improvements are "essential to all that we do" to promote
renewable energy.
The clean energy conference - which included former Vice
President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global
warming, and former President Bill Clinton - focused at length on the
need for a national "smart" grid to transport electricity, and the
need for grid expansion.
Gore said modernizing the transmission grid will allow for new
ways to generate and distribute electricity.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he's ready to open federal
land to renewable energy projects, including wind farms in the waters
off the U.S. coast, and map out energy corridors. But, he warned, the power grid of
today won't get the new energy to the markets that need it.
"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," Salazar told the conference, which was organized by the Center for American
Progress.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who chairs the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee that will craft energy legislation, said
that while he has not seen Reid's proposal, he agreed the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission should have more authority for planning
and locating high- voltage power lines.
Bingaman said he hopes to have a bill in four to six weeks that
will address the grid issue and establish a requirement for utilities
nationwide to generate a certain percentage of electricity - as much
as 20 percent by 2020 - from renewable sources such as wind, solar and
biomass.
States have fought to maintain jurisdiction over locating the
power grid.
Fred Butler, a New Jersey regulator who is chairman of National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said state officials
are willing to work with the federal government on placement issues
but oppose a federal takeover of the authority.
Former New York Gov. George Pataki, one of the few Republicans at
the conference, said the federal government must get more involved in
establishing power transmission lines.
"If you try to run a wire through someone's community, that
becomes about as contentious as you get," said Pataki. If that power
is going through a state, he said, "you don't have to take a poll - no
one is going to be for it."