<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Boucher’s bill to fund CCS technology at the expense of rate-payers]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Sean Casten http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:19:16 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/1 Postscript

E&E reports here on yesterday's hearings on this goofy bill.  Note in particular this comment from a utility regulator:

James Kerr, a commissioner of the North Carolina Utilities Commission and former president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said the precedent was a slippery slope.

"As drafted, the legislation would authorize utilities to vote to exempt themselves from any regulatory oversight to recover costs from captive ratepayers," Kerr explained. "This is unprecedented ... we know of no other examples where [Congress] has given private entities the ability to band together to exempt themselves from the lawful application of otherwise applicable state law."

]]> Postscript

E&E reports here on yesterday's hearings on this goofy bill.  Note in particular this comment from a utility regulator:

James Kerr, a commissioner of the North Carolina Utilities Commission and former president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said the precedent was a slippery slope.

"As drafted, the legislation would authorize utilities to vote to exempt themselves from any regulatory oversight to recover costs from captive ratepayers," Kerr explained. "This is unprecedented ... we know of no other examples where [Congress] has given private entities the ability to band together to exempt themselves from the lawful application of otherwise applicable state law."

]]> Comment #2 by Sean Casten http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:25:12 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/2 Postscript 2

This, from Restructuring Today:

Rep Ed Markey, D-Mass, questioned why DOE wasn't in charge of handing out the money -- a typical role for the agency -- instead of the industry-backed EPRI.

Fair question.  To which the utility sector predictably responds:

Keeping the money out of the hands of DOE is a way to make sure that deployment of CCS is actually sped up, said [American Electric Power] CEO Michael Morris.

If anyone can follow that logic, please explain.  But I can certainly understand why an investor-owned utility would like to keep the oversight responsibility within an agency that they have leverage over.  One wonders why this logic doesn't encourage them simply to put ACCCE in charge.  After all, they don't have the conflict with gas, nuke and other non-CCS applicable sources that EPRI has, right?

]]> Postscript 2

This, from Restructuring Today:

Rep Ed Markey, D-Mass, questioned why DOE wasn't in charge of handing out the money -- a typical role for the agency -- instead of the industry-backed EPRI.

Fair question.  To which the utility sector predictably responds:

Keeping the money out of the hands of DOE is a way to make sure that deployment of CCS is actually sped up, said [American Electric Power] CEO Michael Morris.

If anyone can follow that logic, please explain.  But I can certainly understand why an investor-owned utility would like to keep the oversight responsibility within an agency that they have leverage over.  One wonders why this logic doesn't encourage them simply to put ACCCE in charge.  After all, they don't have the conflict with gas, nuke and other non-CCS applicable sources that EPRI has, right?

]]> Comment #3 by Biodiversivist http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:32:40 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/3 Great post, Sean

Your posts on these subjects make me suspect that getting solar integrated into the power grid will also be more of a political struggle than a technological one.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

]]> Great post, Sean

Your posts on these subjects make me suspect that getting solar integrated into the power grid will also be more of a political struggle than a technological one.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

]]> Comment #4 by Sean Casten http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:37:51 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/a-coalonial-house/4 Biod

That is true of all clean technologies - not just solar.  Until you fix the fact that investor owned-utilities have no economic incentive to deploy/encourage technologies that lower the cost of power and lower GHG emissions, R&D ain't on the critical path.  We have to fix the regs first.

CHP in that regard is the canary in the coal mine.  It's not as environmentally pristine as solar, but it's a heck of a lot more economic, and still a directional improvement.  So long as utilities remain hostile to that one, the other stuff doesn't stand a chance.

]]> Biod

That is true of all clean technologies - not just solar.  Until you fix the fact that investor owned-utilities have no economic incentive to deploy/encourage technologies that lower the cost of power and lower GHG emissions, R&D ain't on the critical path.  We have to fix the regs first.

CHP in that regard is the canary in the coal mine.  It's not as environmentally pristine as solar, but it's a heck of a lot more economic, and still a directional improvement.  So long as utilities remain hostile to that one, the other stuff doesn't stand a chance.

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