WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Bob Latta (OH-05), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, led a hearing titled Wires, Rates, And States: Permitting Transmission for Reliable and Affordable Power.
“To protect ratepayers, states, utilities, and grid operators alike must employ methodical planning practices to ensure investment is going to the most reliable and affordable infrastructure needed to keep the lights on 24/7, 365 days a year,” said Chairman Latta. “But today’s discussion doesn’t occur in a vacuum. For years, policymakers and stakeholders have called for permitting reforms that make it easier to build in this country. There is insurmountable evidence that certain federal authorities have been an incessant impediment to the timely construction of infrastructure.”
Watch the full hearing here.
Below are key excerpts from today’s hearing:
Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06): “Mr. Rikard, your testimony mentions that all the transmission in the world cannot fix generation shortfalls. You also note that during Southern Company's peak events, transmission capacity was not so much the concern — there simply was not excess power to buy from other regions of the country. Building more transmission has been a debate in this committee for years, but it seems to me the problem is more about the need to build dispatchable baseload generation. Can you expand on that — if additional transmission would have solved the shortage — and explain how you're making sure the company has enough generation to serve its customers?”
Mr. Rikard: “Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. Transmission is only as good as the generator on the other end. And much like our transmission planning process, our generation planning process is just as robust.”
Congresswoman Laurel Lee (FL-15): “I want to start by acknowledging something that doesn't get said enough, and that is that the American electrical grid is one of the greatest engineering achievements in human history. Hundreds of thousands of miles of transmission lines, millions of interconnected components delivering reliable power to 330 million Americans virtually around the clock. And here is the remarkable thing. The system wasn't built by federal mandate. It was built state by state utility, by utility, with state regulators who understood their communities, their geography, their customers, and their specific energy needs better than any federal agency ever could.”
Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger (TN-01): “I'd like to take time to recognize the great work the Tennessee Valley Authority has done on transmission. They've built more than 16,400 miles of line to provide upwards of 35,000 megawatts of energy to 2 million people across seven states. That's no small feat. They've been successful at building the transmission they need at the rate they require, without FERC getting unnecessarily involved. In return, we're seeing TVA operate to the benefit of the ratepayers by keeping costs low, and Tennessee residents have some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation — even with skyrocketing demand in the western part of the state. We have Colossus in Memphis and Oak Ridge’s Frontier in the east. What they're doing to make sure ratepayers have affordable and sufficient electricity is building transmission — but more importantly, building a lot of new assets. TVA is in the works to bring online 6,200 megawatts of new energy, prioritizing permitting reform to rapidly build more energy generation. That's a critical piece to meeting new demand and keeping prices low.”
