04.25.02

Sen. Cantwell's Statement on Senate Energy Bill

The Northwest economy depends on the Bonneville Power Administration to produce and deliver affordable, reliable electricity. But its transmission grid is showing signs of its age and is in desperate need of modernization and improvements. The last substantial improvements to BPA's transmission grid took place in 1987. Since then, we have had tremendous growth in demand for energy in the Northwest.

Today, the Senate adopted an amendment I co-sponsored along with Senator Wyden to grant BPA $1.3 billion in additional borrowing authority. This borrowing authority will allow the BPA to make much needed improvements in its transmission grid, modernizing lines and reducing bottlenecks. The borrowing authority will also allow BPA to fund new conservation and renewable energy initiatives and make improvements at existing hydro facilities to make them more efficient and fish friendly.

With the adoption of this amendment, I believe that the Senate's energy bill makes significant new investment in the Northwest's economy and environment. While this bill does not deliver everything we wanted, this bill helps change our focus from fossil fuel extraction to the production of sustainable energy sources. We successfully defeated the Republican policy of dig, drill, and burn in ANWR, and this bill makes strategic investments in natural gas and renewable energy sources.

In particular, I am pleased that the bill supports the construction of an Alaskan Natural Gas Pipeline. It also has our first national Renewable Portfolio Standard - albeit a much weaker one than I would prefer. The bill' s tax package includes about $7 billion in tax credits for energy conversation and renewable energy sources. It also authorizes $1 billion in new research and development.

I was also pleased that the final bill includes several amendments that I sponsored and co-sponsored. The amendments will:

Support high-tech energy efficiency technologies by creating an R&D demonstration program at the Department of Energy to explore ways to save energy at facilities such as server farms and data labs. Encourage utilities to adopt technology that will give customers real-time information about their energy usage, empowering them to make smarter decisions, with a smart metering incentive Level the playing field for public utilities who can't take advantage of tax incentives want to invest in renewable generation with a renewable energy production incentive Promote the development of fuel cell technology with fuel cell tax credits and by setting up a program at DOE to ensure 100,000 fuel cell vehicles will be available for sale by 2010 and 2.5 million by 2028. However, despite our victory on ANWR, this bill misses key opportunities to develop an energy policy for the 21st century. It does not do enough to encourage the use of clean, renewable energy and falls short of the mark on auto efficiency standards. In fact, by exempting pickup trucks from CAFE standards, the bill weakens auto efficiency regulations.

The energy bill actually turns back the clock on consumer protections and threatens a repeat of last year's energy crisis with its flawed deregulation of electricity markets. By repealing the Public Utilities Holding Company Act without putting adequate safeguards in place, it reduces transparency requirements for utility transactions and lowers private utility merger standards.

On balance, however, the investment that this bill makes in the Northwest's energy grid will be a significant boost for our economy. The bill's flaws are mainly of omission. For this reason, I support final passage of the bill and call on conferees to stand firm against any attempts by House Republicans to roll back existing consumer or environmental protections.