Power struggle over towers
Nov 24 - Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
Combating global warming with a "green superhighway" of high- voltage
power lines -- that large groups of consumers then have to pay for --
could be bad news for New Jersey, say state leaders, environmental
activists and utility companies.
Governor Corzine joined governors from nine other Atlantic coast states
in opposing the idea. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., voted against a major
energy bill because of it.
And the heads of the state's Sierra Club chapter and its biggest
electric company, who are fighting in court over other power plant
issues, are united against it.
They all say the plan, intended to promote renewable energy from wind,
solar and geothermal sources, could derail offshore wind energy projects
already under way in the East, and open new markets for coal, one of the
most carbon-dioxide intensive fuels.
The proposal is envisioned as a way to tap the wind whipping down the
plains and the sun baking the desert to power major population centers
on the East and West coasts. No transmission-line routes have been laid
out yet, and it is not clear how Congress will handle the issue.
Backers, including a former Nevada regulator now running the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
say the nation's energy future requires giving the federal government
new power over siting and cost-sharing.
"The Achilles' heel of renewable energy is transmission," FERC Chairman
Jon Wellinghoff told a forum sponsored by Energy Daily in Washington
last month. "Many of the clean resources are located far from
consumers."
States currently control siting issues, and it is understandable states
might oppose high-voltage towers across their land if the states are not
benefiting directly. But advocates for giving FERC the power to site
power lines, even if states object, say that reducing the billions of
dollars spent on oil from countries that are not friendly to the United
States, and shifting to energy that produces less carbon, provide
national benefits that justify federal authority and regional
cost-sharing.
"Our energy policy is a liability to our economic security and our
national security," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former senator
from Colorado, told the same forum.
Countering Wellinghoff and Salazar at the forum was Ralph Izzo, chief
executive of Public Service Enterprise Group, the parent company of
Public Service Electric and Gas Co.
"Suggesting we should get our renewables from remote areas regardless of
transmission costs is like saying if only we had access to free
refrigerated freight trains, we should get all our ice cubes from the
North Pole," Izzo said. "Who pays to build the trains or lay the tracks?
And wouldn't it be cheaper to make the ice locally?"
Izzo also said that long-distance lines invariably would cross regions
where power is produced from coal, and it is unlikely that once lines
are built those power plants would be barred from using them.
"Thus you could end up with transmission lines that are economically
unjustified and environmentally self-defeating," he said.
PSEG is partnering with Deepwater Wind on a 350-megawatt offshore wind
project 12 miles southeast of Atlantic City.
But that project and others off New Jersey, Delaware and Rhode Island
may not go forward if government backing for Midwest or Western power
makes it cheaper than offshore wind, said Jim Lanard, managing director
of Deepwater.
"This is a turf war between regions," he said. "New Jersey would go from
exporting its money to oil-exporting nations to exporting its money to
power-exporting states."
Corzine and other coastal governors wrote to congressional leaders in
May arguing that if the federal government is going to get involved at
all in transmission issues, they should be addressed regionally.
"This ratepayer-funded revenue guarantee for land-based wind and other
generation resources in the Great Plains would have significant,
negative consequences for our region," the governors said.
A spokeswoman for Wellinghoff, Mary O'Driscoll, said long- distance
transmission lines should not be built if local resources could meet
demand and address carbon-reduction goals reliably and cheaply.
But she said there still needs to be a structure to address interstate
transmission issues that serve national goals.
Jobs and local economics are also being cited by critics of the
transmission-line proposal. Lanard said companies looking to exploit
offshore wind are hoping to build enough of an industry in the Atlantic
Ocean that equipment manufacturers would locate in the region.
Right now, the PSEG/Deepwater project is buying equipment for the test
tower it plans to build next spring from the Gulf Coast, where companies
make equipment for oil and gas drilling platforms. The state is
subsidizing $4 million of the test tower project, which will cost
between $5 million and $7 million.
Jeff Tittel, state director of the Sierra Club, said the transmission
issue is being used by the Obama administration to sell a cap on carbon
emissions to members of Congress from Midwestern states. While Tittel
supports capping carbon, as the others from New Jersey do, he's worried
the power lines would open new markets for coal.
"When you build these big lines, the question is will it be renewable or
will it be coal they're carrying? Coal's cheaper, but it will undermine
renewable energy," he said.
Menendez tried to ensure states could block transmission lines when the
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee took up a major energy
bill this year.
After his proposed amendments were defeated, Menendez opposed the final
bill and said he would seek further changes in the full Senate. That has
not yet happened, but the Senate's Environment and Public Works
Committee begins hearings this week on a broad climate- change bill that
may be merged with the energy bill Menendez opposed. Salazar and
Wellinghoff are among those scheduled to testify Tuesday, while Izzo is
on the witness list for Wednesday.
***
(SIDEBAR)
What it means
What's new:
New Jersey leaders who support global warming laws are against new
proposed power lines to carry wind and solar power from sparsely
populated plains and deserts to big cities.
What's next:
U.S. Senate committee hearings begin this week.
What they're saying:
"You could end up with transmission lines that are economically
unjustified and environmentally self-defeating."
PSEG Chairman Ralph Izzo
***
E-mail: jackson@northjersey.com
***
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