This article was originally published in Politico Pro.
By Catherine Morehouse
House Republicans lambasted FERC's sweeping transmission rule, drawing a sharp defense of the rule by the agency's chair and Democratic lawmakers during a committee hearing on Wednesday.
The dispute comes more than two months after the release of the rule that aims to facilitate the building of bigger, more-efficient power line projects. The rule is facing a wave of court challenges — signaling the fight over the agency's new policies is far from over.
Leadership on the Energy and Commerce Energy, Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee, including subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) and E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.), blasted the rule as a boon to progressive state policies that will raise costs for red states. Republican Commissioner Mark Christie also reiterated his concerns with the rule, which he voted against.
Duncan said Republicans' main concern with the rule is its “skewed” list of benefits that he argues ends up prioritizing renewable portfolio standards, emissions reduction commitments and the Biden administration’s goals to cut emissions from the power sector.
“The ultimate purpose here is clear: prioritize those projects meant to serve an environmental agenda by creating a set of seven broad benefits designed to assist transmission developers socializing costs across a broader rate base,” he added.
Chair Willie Phillips repeatedly disputed Republicans' assertion that the rule will force customers who do not benefit from new power lines to pay for them — and argued the rule is a commonsense effort to cut costs to customers and boost system reliability.
“Order No. 1920 requires utilities to plan today for the factors that we know will drive tomorrow's reliability and affordability needs, while requiring that customers pay for new transmission only to the extent that they benefit from that infrastructure,” Phillips said. “Let me say that again. If you don't benefit, you don't pay. Period.”
Democratic lawmakers also defended FERC’s rule, arguing Republicans were blowing its impacts out of proportion.
“I've been encouraged by the reception the rule has received from nearly every corner of the political world — except from congressional Republicans,” said committee ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). “It seems Republicans would prefer that their constituents be slapped with higher power bills."
Data centers: Several lawmakers pressed FERC on the impact of new data centers on the power system. They specifically questioned the commission about whether it made sense for data centers to colocate on nuclear power plant sites, something large corporations are increasingly interested in.
Christie and Phillips both declined to answer questions on colocation, citing a pending case before FERC on the same issue — possibly the question of whether an Amazon data center can be colocated at Talen Energy’s majority-owned Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
“We have a pending case that is a really big case and it is pending right now,” said Christie. “And so to give you my thoughts, I'm afraid ... would be prejudging it, but that is a humongous issue.”
LNG: Though some Republicans pressed FERC on whether it’s doing enough to ensure liquefied natural gas projects are being moved quickly enough, the topic was much less contentious than it has been in previous hearings.
Duncan praised the commission for its efforts on LNG, including its approval of the massive CP2 LNG terminal last month. Christie also made a point to praise Phillips for his efforts to push projects across the finish line at FERC.
“He has done an absolutely fantastic job in moving these applications,” Christie said.
New Commissioners: FERC’s three newest commissioners — Republican nominee Lindsay See and Democrats David Rosner and Judy Chang — all appeared before the committee for the first time.
See treaded lightly on pointed questions from Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) digging for her thoughts on the EPA’s latest power plant rule and its impact on system reliability. The new commissioner was most recently the solicitor general of West Virginia where she argued on behalf of fossil fuel states in front of the Supreme Court against the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.
See said the issue is “very important” and praised FERC for focusing on the EPA rule for part of its grid reliability technical conference last fall. She also said that while carbon capture has “a lot of promise,” she is concerned as of now about whether the technology is deployable in the “aggressive time frames” laid out by the EPA power plant rule.
