Western state governors included support for an Alaska naturalgas pipeline to bring in new supplies, along with expansion of gaspipelines and electric transmission lines in the lower 48 statesamong their long-term recommendations to deal with the energycrisis in the West.

The governors of Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana,Nevada, Oregon and Utah, meeting last Friday for an energyroundtable under the auspices of the Western Governors Association,came up with a laundry list of short- and long-term actionsdesigned to contain the western energy supply crisis (see DailyGPI, Feb. 5).

The group recommended convening a workgroup of majortransmission system owners to identify where bottlenecks occur andto recommend needed new transmission facilities.

Other long-term supply-side recommendations included: streamlingprocesses for siting new generation, electric transmission andnatural gas pipelines,implementing R&D and tax incentives topromote the development and deployment of new technologies toincrease the efficiency and lower the emissions from coal-basedgeneration, accelerating development of renewable energytechnologies through the expansion of state and federal productiontax credits and policies; enabling exploration and development ofpromising domestic oil, gas, coal, geothermal or wind resourceswhere lands, air, water, fish and wildlife, and other environmentalresources can be protected, and reviewing environmental and naturalresource policies to ensure they are as efficient as possible.

On the demand side, the governors advocated encouraging ratestructures that give utilities an incentive to reduce consumption,encouraging extended conservation programs and R&D on moreenergy efficient buildings and products.

In the short term, the governors pushed long-term powercontracts for California, rate reform that sends the correctsignals to consumers to encourage off-peak use, and streamliningregulatory processes to enable retired generation to bereactivated, existing generation to increase production, and newgeneration and natural gas and electricity transmission to come online while protecting public health, safety and the environment.

The governors also recommended setting up demand-exchangetariffs under which customers can voluntarily agree to reducedemand in exchange for compensation, The power could be sold in thehigh price wholesale market with the profits shared between thecustomer (90%) and utility (10%).

State and tribal public utility commissions andnon-jurisdictional utilities should also work to “eliminatebarriers to clean distributed generation that can be in place inthe next 12-24 months. Distributed generation includes smallturbines (e.g., less than 5 MW), high efficiency co-generation,fuels cells, etc.”

While not advocating a single western regional transmissionorganization (RTO), the governors urged a centralized grid-widedatabase be set up providing detailed tracking of prospectivedemand and generation and transmission facilities, as well asensuring the availability of information on loads, transmission,and generation where necessary for ensuring the adequacy,efficiency and reliability of the grid. They also suggested federallegislation be enacted to enable the establishment of enforceablesystem reliability rules; provide for delegation and deference tothe West; and enable the creation of regional advisory bodies ofstates and provinces.

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