Creating a national power grid for renewable energy has become a high priority for the federal government but catching the wind for it is exposing some rifts in the plan, Matthew L. Wald reports for The New York Times.
The strongest potentials for wind and solar energy are in the Great Plains, but “An influential coalition of East Coast governors and power companies fears that building wind and solar sites in the Midwest would cause their region to miss out on jobs and other economic benefits,” and is trying to block a mandate for such lines, Wald writes. East Coast governors are suggesting that New England farms should get a piece of the economic benefit of hosting wind turbines and new transmission lines. They wrote in a letter to House and Senate leaders in May “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 energy and climate-change bill passed by the House would allow the federal government to overrule state objections to new power lines, but only west of the Rocky Mountains. Dan Reicher, an energy initiative leader at Google, told Wald the issue is both simple and complex. “The areas with the most attractive renewable energy resources often don’t overlap with the places where the push for job creation is strongest,” he said.
The debate deepens when critics say proposed power lines could also be used to transfer coal-fired power. Coal plants unable to sell power because of congestion in the current power grid would be helped, but at a cost to the ‘renewable’ standard. The issue includes cost-supply questions, economic development concerns and environmental sustainability, Branko Terzic, a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member, told Wald. “Those three goals are not always concurrent and could be in conflict.” (Read more)
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