2. ENERGY POLICY: Obama admin mulling 'one stop' team for transmission siting (Greenwire, 02/23/2009)

Ben Geman, E&E reporter

The Obama administration is considering the creation of an inter-agency team to spur siting of electricity-transmission lines, the White House's top energy and climate official said yesterday.

Carol Browner, who has been dubbed the administration's energy and climate czar, said at a meeting of Western governors in Washington, D.C., that "some sort of inter-agency siting team" might provide "one stop" siting of transmission, which is seen as key to bringing renewable energy resources on line.

Some Western governors have complained that bureaucracy is complicating efforts to build power lines, especially in areas where large swaths of land are controlled by the federal government. It is an issue that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar -- a former Democratic senator from Colorado -- has also pledged to address.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R), chairman of the Western Governors' Association, cited the need to "transcend traditional bureaucracies" in a meeting with Browner and Salazar. The meeting was held alongside the National Governors Association meeting.

Salazar said increased federal coordination on transmission siting makes sense.

"I support the concept because I think what we need to do is move forward with an accelerated process for upgrading the national grid," he told reporters. "This is the equivalent of the interstate highway system that we are going to try and create in the next several years, the national electric highway, and we can't allow processes that stand in the way of us getting it done."

He added, "I think as a concept it makes a lot of sense. How exactly we put it together, I think there is more work for us to do."

Federal officials, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu, have already pledged to step up efforts to address transmission nationwide. And siting more transmission -- on federal and private lands -- is a major topic at an energy summit in Washington today sponsored by the Center for American Progress.

A looming question is whether Congress will strengthen the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's hand in siting transmission projects, which often get bogged down in state-level disputes.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) flagged the power grid when laying out his agenda in a speech last November. "It is hard to see how you ever get to a national grid if you do not have more ability at the federal level to bring about more uniformity in policy," he said.

Bingaman is working on what he pledges will be a broad, bipartisan energy bill, although the precise contents remain unclear. Reid said last week that he hopes to bring energy legislation to the floor during the upcoming six-week work period.

The new economic stimulus law contains billions to modernize and expand the nation's power grid. This includes $6 billion in loan guarantees for transmission, renewable energy and biofuels projects, which lawmakers say will support more than $60 billion worth of loans for such projects.

It also provides an additional $6.5 billion in borrowing authority for the Bonneville Power Administration and the Western Area Power Administration for transmission projects. Chu last week said there are Bonneville Power Administration transmission projects that have completed environmental reviews and are ready to go.

For other projects, Chu said he is working with U.S. EPA and Interior on speeding up regulatory procedures for transmission projects without "undermining" environmental and other federal reviews (Greenwire, Feb. 18).

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