Climate Change 'Big Priority' For Energy Commission Chief
By Steven Mufson
Saturday, March 21, 2009; A03
Add a new name to the list of Obama appointees devoted to aggressive
action on climate change.
President Obama yesterday named Jon Wellinghoff -- a lawyer who once
served as Nevada's consumer advocate and a believer that electric-car
owners could someday get paid to provide backup battery power to the
electricity grid -- as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission.
Wellinghoff joined the commission in 2006 and has been serving as
acting chairman since January. He takes charge of an agency that has
long been dominated by oil and gas or utility lawyers and that focuses
on the wholesale part of the oil, natural gas and electricity markets.
The agency oversees about 368,000 miles of electricity transmission
lines and more than 11,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, and
regulates hydroelectric projects and energy markets.
But Wellinghoff, who conducted a full energy audit of the shortcomings
of FERC's headquarters soon after he arrived, had previously helped
write Nevada's renewable electricity standard requiring utilities to
increase their use of wind, solar and geothermal power. He was the
lead attorney for a big solar installation near Las Vegas. And on his
windowsill, he keeps a small Stirling engine, a device used in many
geothermal and solar installations that runs when it comes in contact
with the heat of a hand or computer monitor.
In an interview Thursday, he said climate change would remain "a big
priority for me. From everything I've read, we're in big trouble and
we need to do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint."
To do that, Wellinghoff envisions a more sophisticated electricity
system with more big transmission lines and a "smart grid" with
greater ability to coordinate fluctuations in wind and solar power
with the demand from households, buildings and factories.
On Thursday, he supported a proposal that sets rules for smart-grid
devices so they can communicate with each other more easily. He is
also seeking greater authority over the siting of transmission lines
that could carry renewable resources from sparsely populated places
where they are plentiful to the cities and suburbs where those
resources are most needed.
"How do we do that without steamrolling the states" is a key issue,
Wellinghoff said. And while he said that the less FERC intrudes on the
power of states the better, he also said that "at the end of the day
you need the power to overrule them" in order to make sure that "we
get the upgrades done that are essential to the national interest,
national security and our environmental interest with respect to
carbon and greenhouse gas emissions."
A recent court ruling, which asserted states' rights to block
transmission lines, could complicate that task. But Senate Majority
Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) favors an increase in FERC's authority;
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman
(D-N.M.) plans to push the idea as part of an energy bill.
Another potential conflict was defused this week. The Interior
Department and FERC agreed to divide responsibility for regulating
offshore alternative energy sources such as wind and wave power,
ending a year-and-a-half-long interagency turf battle. Interior will
decide on wind power proposals in federal waters, while FERC will
oversee wave, tidal and ocean-current projects.
In Wellinghoff's view, the U.S. electricity system will ultimately
become more decentralized, with local solar projects generating power
and automobiles serving as storage devices for utility companies. He
said that in five to 10 years, if the cost of including the price of
household solar installation in a mortgage is less than the money
saved on utility bills, "everybody will put solar on their houses."
Ultimately, Wellington hopes to find ways to better manage electricity
demand so renewable power sources can be integrated into the system.
For instance, he is a proponent of using electric cars to send
electricity back to the electrical grid as well as draw from it.
Electric-car owners could sign up with a company that would amalgamate
hundreds or thousands of car owners and, based on their average
behavior, promise to either draw down or send back electricity to the
grid. Car owners would be paid, which would help offset the cost of
electric vehicles, currently priced at least $8,000 or as much as
$12,000 more than non-electric versions.
"It makes the grid more efficient, but it could also benefit vehicle
owners because they would be getting money back," he said.
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Link to Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/20/AR2009032003194_pf.html
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