News Roundup
News Roundup for June 29
MAN OF MANY HATS
John Bryson
Former Southern California Edison/Edison International Chairman and CEO John Bryson told a Senate committee that, if confirmed as secretary of commerce, he will help simplify difficult-to-understand regulations, eliminate ineffective ones and speed up regulatory decisions. Bryson, who also co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council and headed California’s public utilities commission, told the Commerce Committee that “I know what it means to be regulated from a business perspective … I’m no stranger to handling difficult challenges in difficult times. I have the scars from the lessons learned to prove it.”
PIPELINE PROGNOSIS
More interstate pipelines are needed as natural gas is used to generate a greater share of U.S. electricity, according to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member John Norris. The commissioner said that he is concerned about the adequacy of the infrastructure to support gas’s growth as a primary fuel for generation. Massive new projects are needed, Norris told the Natural Gas Roundtable in Washington. FERC’s approval process has enabled the industry to grow the pipeline sector immensely in the last 10 years, the regulator said, “and we’ll continue to do that.”
NORTHWEST UPGRADES
The Bonneville Power Administration is proposing two transmission line upgrades in Washington and Montana that, along with four new high-voltage lines already under construction or consideration, would deliver 3,200 additional megawatts of electricity, including 1,900 megawatts of wind power. The projects are the result of BPA’s process to better gauge demand for new transmission and manage its transmission queue. One project’s upgrades would increase capacity on BPA’s interconnection with Canada. The other would increase transmission capacity in eastern Washington and Montana.
N.Y. SITING RULES
Power plant developers in New York have prevailed in an eight-year battle to restore state plant siting rules. The rules’ 2003 expiration left a piecemeal approach to power plant siting largely controlled by localities. The bill reinstates state authority for power plants larger than 25 megawatts. New York’s independent system operator has warned that proposed environmental regulations may lead to older plants’ retirement, creating the need for new plants or repowering. It estimates that proposed environmental rules could affect more than half of New York’s capacity.
—Based on news and wire reports
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