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Press Release

Western Governors Commend Sen. Domenici 
for Adopting Regional Approach on Electricity in Energy Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2003

Contact: Kevin Moran (202) 624-5402

DENVER --Western governors today commended Sen. Pete Domenici, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, for including in the energy legislation adopted today a regional approach to electricity that better "fits the needs of the West."

Gov. Judy Martz of Montana, WGA Chair, and Gov. Bill Richardson, WGA Vice Chairman and lead governor for energy issues, thanked Domenici for helping move the committee "away from a top-down centralized model to a more regional model, which we believe would better fit the needs of the West."

"Western Governors strongly support your proposed language on reliability standards and the decision not to preempt state authority over electric transmission siting," the governors' letter stated. "We also believe the Committee is making significant progress toward protecting state authority over retail electricity decisions."

In earlier testimony submitted to the committee on behalf of his colleagues, Richardson said there are three major areas of agreement among the governors: 

  • Federal electric system reliability legislation needs to be enacted to ensure that present voluntary regional reliability standards can be enforced. Such legislation should recognize and defer to standards developed and enforced in the Western Interconnection. 
  • FERC should not be granted the power of eminent domain for electric transmission line siting, even in a backstop mode. There is no evidence in the West that states have ever blocked the permitting of an interstate transmission project. 
  • The federal government should not intrude into the retail electric decisions of states. Western governors opposed federal legislation that would expand FERC's authority into retail electricity decisions.

The full Senate is expected to take up the energy bill next week. The governors said they hope to continue to work with Domenici and other lawmakers to ensure that Western interests are protected.

Additional information is available on the WGA Web site at www.westgov.org.  The Western Governors’ Association is an independent, nonprofit organization representing the governors of 18 states and three U.S.-Flag islands in the Pacific. Through their Association, the Western governors identify and address key policy and governance issues in natural resources, the environment, human services, economic development, international relations and public management.

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