On March 13, Lori Pickford of Morgan Meguire and Scott Strauss of Spiegel & McDiarmid met with the staff of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) to discuss S. 2660/H.R. 5547. The wind industry had raised preliminary concerns that the bills might discourage renewable energy development. Pickford and Strauss informed AWEA that it was not the intent of the bill’s sponsors to affect development of renewables. Instead, its purpose is to make clear to all RTO/ISOs that their mission must be expanded to ensure that they operate in a cost‑effective manner, and prepare a cost/benefit analysis for major market rules. Strauss highlighted that the legislation is sufficiently flexible to permit the assessment of costs or benefits to include, among other things, increasing the nation’s energy independence and addressing, over time, important global warming/climate change concerns.
Staff to AWEA said, generally, that they are pro-RTO regional markets, because organized markets provide better access to the grid for wind development. As a result, anything that could be interpreted as “anti-RTO” they generally oppose. Pickford and Strauss indicated that they did not see the bill as an anti-RTO effort, but instead as an effort to improve RTOs. AWEA expressed support for even larger RTO control areas, because they provide a single transmission rate, and region-wide operational protocols.
On the other hand, they seemed to understand that large, continued rate increases were detrimental to the end-consumer and, therefore, a problem. AWEA staff also mentioned that in New England congressional offices, rising rates is a consistent theme. Lastly, they seemed pleased to hear the bill was not an attempt to undercut renewable development or efforts to expand the transmission grid to these resources, but instead an effort to help make the underlying market more efficient and less costly.
In addition, FERC staff recently met with Senate staff and expressed concerns that the bill might limit renewables resources, because they are more expensive than other resources.