Draft bill would relabel transmission lines as "green" infrastructure.

3/05/2009

If legislation circulating on the Hill is adopted, transmission lines will soon be relabeled "green". Even if the new lines would be used to ship dirty, coal-fired generation. Even if cheaper, cleaner alternatives like energy efficiency haven't been pursued. Even if thousands of acres of forests would have to be clear-cut.

This is a terrible way to plan for our energy future. The legislation would federalize transmission siting without changing the utilities' backroom planning process or requiring more than a cursory look at alternatives.

Draft Legislation Lets Utilities Greenwash Business as Usual

Draft legislation from Senator Reid (D-NV) directs the President to quickly designate areas as "National Renewable Energy Zones." Each zone must be able to generate at least 1 gigawatt of renewable electricity at least 30% of the year, and a significant portion of this generation must come from rural areas or federal land. This sounds positive on the surface, but here's the problem as we see it:

• Any lines identified within these new federal zones are presumed 'needed', regardless of demand, alternatives, impact, etc.
• Energy efficiency, demand side management and distributed generation take the backseat (again). Any bill that increases access to federal eminent domain for transmission siting should, at a minimum, establish a process to exhaust alternatives.
• These "green" transmission lines would move coal power throughout the country, open up new markets for coal, and substitute coal for cleaner forms of generation, like natural gas. Under current pricing, which this bill would not change, coal generated electricity is dispatched before the next more expensive sources of generation.
• Only on-shore renewables in rural areas are counted in the analysis. This leaves out off-shore wind (see DOE's wind potential map) and renewables in urban areas (rooftop solar, skyscraper wind).
• This legislation does not undo the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC) process, it adds to it.

In our transition to more efficient and renewable energy use, we can't afford to get this wrong. These are just some of our concerns. See a more detailed review of the draft bill.