Editor,
The nation needs more energy and something needs to be done. The current energy permitting process can take a decade to bring new energy sources online. There are many solar, wind, and battery storage projects waiting to be connected but can’t be for lack of transmission capacity, especially across state lines.
Congress needs to update the permitting process through a comprehensive permitting reform bill. This legislation would not increase the size of government, but it would reduce energy costs and increase the size of the economy by increasing the energy supply. We need to get early community involvement to get to yes for the good projects and no to the bad projects faster. And we need to have a shorter litigation window to avoid the litigation doom loop that currently can add seven years to getting a permit.
The current federal rules were established in the 1960s and 1970s, before there were renewable energy projects, and they favor industries that were being built back then: oil and gas. As a result, 95% of the projects waiting for permits are green energy projects.
I am hoping Representative Mullin, Senator Schiff, and Senator Padilla will co-sponsor a bill to do this.
We at Citizen’s Climate Lobby support real solutions that favor jobs, economic growth and enhance our global competitiveness. These are values that both Republicans and Democrats can support. And if we’ve learned anything over the last year, it is that lasting legislation is bi-partisan legislation.
Elaine Salinger
San Mateo
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(3) comments
"need to be scheduled"
"We at Citizen’s Climate Lobby" don't have a clue. Elaine, the main reason for these delays are the complexity of interconnecting irregular energy sources with the grid. Clearly, none of your greenies is an electrical engineer and you may think that connecting a distant solar system or a wind mill is a matter of plug and play. All of these sources need to "scheduled", considered reliable and comply with voltage regulation and phasing. Politicians like Becker and the Pencil Neck have no clue either, so your organization, in this matter, should be totally ignored.
This is about greenwashing, nothing more, nothing less.
By 2015, Bay Area Democrats realized they have not built and green infrastructure locally, nor have they reduced GHG emissions of any kind (not in transportation, not in home energy). But luckily someone found an old CA law from 2002 allowing them to build "Community Choice Aggregations" or CCAs.
The CCA law was created to allow private companies to come in, invest in green technologies like wind and solar and sell that green energy at a higher price to consumers. These consumers were supposedly the early adopters, willing to pay a little bit more for the BRAGGING rights that their investments made wind and solar a industry of scale and therefore lowered their price.
This template came from Europe, where it seemed to work very well. So well in fact that by 2012/2013 solar did become the cheapest form of energy and natural gas and wind close behind.
Basically CCAs become obsolete by 2012.
And yet, Bay Area Democrats realized these CCAs could still be a valuable tool to hid GHG emissions by pretending 40 year old Shasta hydropower or Kern wind power projects are suddenly their projects. Basically by buying these bragging rights, they could claim victory on the home energy front. They still had to push for "Electrification" on all fronts, because it's easier to "greenwash" electricity than fossil fuels. And sure they tried by calling it "clean coal", "clean diesel" or "natural gas", but somehow it's still burns.
Anyhow, now that more and more CA counties are using the same trick, San Mateo and Senator Becker are running out of 40-year old projects and they would actually have to invest in real new projects.
But what if we just extend our reach by including green bragging rights from Nevada or Utah, where politicians don't need to brag and look "green"?
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