Press Release

Denver--Western governors, joined by organizations throughout the West and the nation, are urging the Senate on Thursday to adopt electricity provisions within federal energy legislation that will continue to assure reliable electric power supplies for consumers and industry.

Governors are supporting an amendment being offered by Sen. Craig Thomas of Wyoming that would ensure the development and enforcement of reliability standards that meet the needs of the nation and each electrically distinct region. In a letter to Thomas, the governors said his amendment "...accommodates the international nature of our electric grids, and builds on more than 30 years of success in maintaining system reliability."

A vast array of Western and national organizations are also supporting the Thomas amendment including the North American Electric Reliability Council, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the Western electricity industry through the Western Interconnection Coordination Forum, the American Public Power Association, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the Canadian Electricity Association.

The amendment would replace language in S. 517 that gives a blank check to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on reliability issues. As drafted, S. 517:

• ignores 30 years of experience in ensuring reliability;
• provides no defined process for setting and enforcing reliability standards and opens the door to potentially conflicting reliability systems;
• fails to ensure deference to the unique characteristics of each regional power grid;
• fails to assure that reliability decisions cannot be dictated by any single segment of the power industry;
• denies a role for states in setting and enforcing reliability standards; and
• transfers decision-making on these important matters to an entity thousands of miles away from electricity consumers in many parts of the nation.

A copy of the letter to Sen. Thomas and other background material are available on the Western Governors' Association Web site at www.westgov.org.  Also on the Web is a copy of a side-by-side comparison of issues raised in a letter sent by Sen. Jeff Bingaman to his colleagues and the reliability provisions of S 517.

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.