Pending legislation regarding electricity transmission lines
The Committee will conduct a legislative hearing to examine Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act, draft legislation regarding siting of electricity transmission lines, including increased federal siting authority and regional transmission planning.
Witnesses- Jon Wellinghoff, acting chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
- Tony Clark, commissioner, North Dakota Public Service Commission
- Reid Detchon, executive director, Energy Future Coalition
- James Dickenson, managing director, JEA
- Joseph Welch, president, ITC Holdings Corp.
- Michael Morris, chairman, American Electric Power
- Graham Edwards, acting president, Midwest ISO.
Reid’s bill is similar to a national clean energy grid plan introduced last month by the Energy Future Coalition and the Center for American Progress, which is supported by a range of stakeholders including the American Wind Energy Association, ITC Holdings, Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council.Under Reid’s bill, the Energy Department would have less than one year to identify “zones” where renewable energy could produce more than 1 gigawatt of electricity or where there was insufficient transmission capacity to carry that much electricity from renewable energy generators in two of the nation’s main grid systems: the Western and Eastern Interconnects. The third system is contained within Texas, which has already implemented a renewable energy zone and grid planning policy that was part of the inspiration for Reid’s bill.
A broad coalition of stakeholders – including state regulators, utilities, environmental advocates, transmission owners, grid operators and energy developers – would then have one year to plan a transmission roadmap for each of the two interconnections to integrate these renewable energy zones into the current grid and to create a cost allocation system for companies to understand how they will recover their investment. A transmission surcharge on all load bearing entities within the two systems would be developed and implemented by FERC to cover up to $80 million for the costs of the planning.
Companies would then apply to FERC for authorization to build projects within the “green” transmission roadmap. If states fail to participate or develop an interconnection wide roadmap or formulas to pay for the projects in one year, FERC would have the authority to step in.
FutureGen and the Department of Energy's Advanced Coal Programs
- Victor K. Der, Acting Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy
- Mark Gaffigan, director of the natural resources and environment team, Government Accountability Office
- Sarah Forbes, senior associate, climate and energy program, World Resources Institute
- Robert Finley, director, Energy and Earth Resources Center, Illinois State Geological Survey
- Larry Monroe, senior research consultant, Southern Co.
A House Science and Technology subcommittee will explore the troubled FutureGen advanced coal project Wednesday, days after Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he hoped to proceed in a “modified” way with the project that his predecessor abandoned.The review of FutureGen, a prototype that would capture and sequester carbon dioxide emissions among other goals, is part of a broader Energy & Environment Subcommittee probe of DOE programs to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases from burning coal, which currently provides half the nation’s electric power.
The hearing will “inform members about near-term and long-term strategies to accelerate research, development and demonstration of advanced technologies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing coal-fired power plants,” according to the committee.
But questions about FutureGen – a joint federal-industry project that was slated for construction in Mattoon, Ill. – specifically will probably take center stage.
Forest Service Oversight
- Robin Nazzaro, director for natural resources and the environment, GAO
- Phyllis Fong, inspector general,Agriculture Department
House appropriators will delve into the state of the Forest Service on Wednesday, likely focusing on the escalating cost of wildfires and the agency’s fire management plans.The session is one in a series of pre-budget hearings designed to get assessments and input from federal watchdogs on the operation of agencies overseen by the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.
One inescapable topic is how to fix the Forest Service’s budget problems due to wildfire costs. In recent years, the agency has run out of firefighting money and had to transfer hundreds of millions from its other programs to cover the wildfire costs, causing major disruptions to its other priorities.
The Obama administration wants to create a new contingent reserve fund for catastrophic wildfires. The fund would be tapped only if federal agencies exhaust regularly budgeted money for wildfires, which would continue to be fully funded based on the 10-year average cost of fire suppression.
The discretionary reserve fund would include $75 million for Interior agencies and $282 million for the Forest Service for firefighting. The fund would be tapped into after the $1.1 billion appropriated 10-year average runs out.
Pending water resources legislation
The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on issues related to the Bingman-Murkowski Energy-Water Integration Act (S. 531), a bill to provide for the conduct of an in-depth analysis of the impact of energy development and production on the water resources of the United States, and for other purposes.
Witnesses
Panel 1- Carl Bauer, Director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, US Department of Energy
- Stephen Bolze, GE Power & Water
- Dr. Michael Webber, The University of Texas at Austin
- Dr. Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute
- Dr. Lon House, Water and Energy Consulting
The Energy and Water Integration Act of 2009 contains the following:
- National Academy Energy-Water Study – Requires a study to assess water use associated with developing fuels in the transportation sector, and the water consumed in different types of electricity-generation.
- Power Plant Water and Energy Efficiency– directs DOE to identify best available technologies and other strategies maximize water and energy efficiency in producing electricity.
- Reclamation Water Conservation & Energy Savings Study – directs the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to evaluate energy use in storing and delivering water from Reclamation projects, and identify ways to reduce such use through conservation, improved operations, and renewable energy integration.
- BOR Brackish Groundwater Desalination Facility– Organic legislation to establish research priorities for this existing Facility, including renewable energy integration with desalination technologies.
- EIA Energy Use for Water Assessment – a requirement for EIA to continually report on the energy consumed in water treatment and delivery activities.
- Energy-Water Roadmap – directs the Secretary of Energy to develop an Energy-Water Research and Development Roadmap to address water-related challenges to sustainable energy generation and production.
The Future of Coal Under Climate Legislation
The hearing addresses the future of coal under an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions, including the technologies and policies that may help reduce coal’s carbon footprint.
Witnesses- David Hawkins, Director, Climate Center, Natural Resources Defense Council
- David Crane, President and CEO, NRG Energy Inc.
- Ian Duncan, Ph.D., Associate Director for Earth and Environmental Systems, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin
- Frank Alix, CEO, Powerspan Corp.
- Harold P. Quinn, Jr., President and CEO, National Mining Association
- Lindene Patton, Climate Product Officer, Zurich Financial Services Group
Energy Outlooks, and the Role of Federal Onshore and Offshore Resources in Meeting Future Energy Demand
- Dr. Fatih Birol, Chief Economist, International Energy Agency
- Dr. Howard K. Gruenspecht, Acting Administrator, Energy Information Administration
- Brenda Pierce, Program Coordinator, Energy Resources Program, U.S. Geological Survey
The hearing is expected to review the International Energy Agency’s 2008 World Energy Outlook, which explores global supply and demand needs for the next two decades, as well as the federal Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook that projects U.S. energy trends.The EIA projects that world energy demand will rise 45 percent between 2006 and 2030, with fossil fuels accounting for 80 percent of the world’s energy mix at that point.
The agency warned that more than $26 trillion in worldwide investment will be needed and that does not include what the agency has said will be trillions more in investment needed to avert runaway greenhouse gas emissions with steps to de-carbonize the power sector and other measures.
Science Education
- Bill Nye, “The Science Guy”
- Dr. Harold Pratt, former president, National Science Teachers Association
Draft legislative proposals on energy research and development
The purpose of this hearing is to review future directions of energy research and development and to identify key scientific and technological hurdles that must be overcome in order to pursue these new directions.
Witnesses
Panel 1- Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
- Dr. George Crabtree, Senior Scientist, Associate Division Director, Argonne National Laboratory
- Bob Fri, Visiting Scholar, Resources for the Future
- James Bartis, Senior Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation
- Deborah Wince-Smith, President, Council on Competitiveness
- Dr. Mike Corradini, Director, Wisconsin Institute of Nuclear Systems, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Department of Energy: Project Management Oversight
- Eugene Aloise, director of natural resources and environment, GAO
- Jonathan Bruel, National Academy of Public Administration