One of two Democrats on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission thanked four GOP lawmakers Wednesday for supporting efforts to finalize a major transmission rule.
“The stakes are high for getting regional transmission planning reform done and getting it right,” Commissioner Allison Clements said in a letter addressed to Reps. Andrew Garbarino, Anthony D’Esposito, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams. The members of Congress, who all represent parts of New York, pushed FERC in February to adopt a rule designed to change how power lines are sited and paid for.
Clements’ response to the lawmakers stands in sharp contrast to that of FERC’s lone Republican commissioner, Mark Christie. Christie sent a letter to the four GOP lawmakers last month that pushed back on their support of the transmission rule.
Such a rule could open the floodgates and help bring heaps of new clean energy online. Many congressional Democrats, electric utilities, tech companies and clean energy advocates have pushed FERC to act.
