Posted by Ed
on March 5, 2008, 2:04 pm
24.34.144.49
Please read carefully!
REGION’S REPS: CONSUMER COSTS NEED TO FACTOR INTO POWER GRID DECISIONS
Federal legislation requiring New England’s electric grid manager to consider consumer costs in planning and decision-making won applause Tuesday from a trade association of regional and cooperative electric utilities. The Consumer Protection and Cost Accountability Act, introduced Tuesday by Sens. Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Olympia Snow of Maine and cosponsored by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Susan Collins of Maine, will ensure that consumers “aren’t left holding the bag for expensive market experiments,” Northeast Public Power Association President Pat Hyland said in a statement. To enforce the bill’s provisions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would be required to make sure that cost-benefit analyses are made in conjunction with new programs and market rules proposed by independent system operators like ISO-New England and regional transmission organizations. The association claims consumers have “not been served well” by a decade of deregulation in the energy markets, with retail prices climbing steadily, fueled by higher natural gas prices, and with “significant profit-taking” in wholesale energy markets and “guaranteed payments” to some private generators. ISO-New England has cautioned lawmakers that significant new sources of energy must be tapped in the coming years to meet rising consumer demands.
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