Public Power - November/December 2007 - (Page 10)

WASHINGTON FOCUS rty years ago, when I joined the APPA staff, America was still rattled by the aftershocks of the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Energy independence had entered our national lexicon and energy conservation and efficiency were regarded as fundamental elements in achieving this goal. It was a teachable moment and we seemed to be learning fast. Congress’s first response to our energy crisis was the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. Among other things, this act created average automobile fuel economy standards and put in place a broad range of energy conservation programs. A year later, 1976, Congress enacted the Energy Conservation and Production Act. It contained electric utility rate design initiatives, energy conservation standards for new buildings and energy conservation and renewable-resource assistance for existing buildings. Energy policy was an important issue in the 1976 presidential election. And when President Carter was sworn in as our 39th president on Jan. 20, 1977, he wasted little time in sending his national energy policy proposal to Congress. The primary focus of Carter’s policy was energy conservation and efficiency. Carter’s proposal, although considerably watered down in Congress, was ultimately enacted as five distinct statutes near the end of 1978. Two of these bills, the National Energy Conservation and Policy Act and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, focused extensively on energy conservation. But, by the end of 1978, we were beginning to lose our focus on energy conservation. At the conclusion of an article on Carter’s legislation in the November-December 1978 issue of Public Power, my co-author Carl Goldfield and I noted that while “the energy crisis, which impelled the passage of the act, may have receded in a temporary glut of oil, it will return, demanding attention.” We never completely lost sight of the benefits of energy conservation. It continued to be an element in the energy bills enacted in the next two decades. But it was never the focal point as it had been for President Carter. By the turn of the 21st century, energy conservation was essentially dismissed by Vice President Cheney, the architect of President Bush’s energy policy, in his now-famous comment that energy conservation was a “personal virtue but no basis for an energy policy.” Events over the last couple of years argue strongly for exactly the opposite position. Load growth is eating up our reserve generating capacity. We need to build new generation facilities. But markets organized and managed by regional transmission organizations are not stimulating new investment. These RTOs are creating forward capacity markets, but research done for APPA’s Electric Market Reform Initiative suggests these markets are costing consumers billions while failing to put steel in the ground. In those places where new construction is moving forward, costs are skyrocketing due to the rapidly escalating prices of materials and labor. The end result for consumers is higher cost electricity. Add to this the ever-mounting concern over global warming. Most industry stakeholders would agree that we cannot meet our future energy needs without including coal generation in the fuel mix, yet plans for new coal plants, at least those utilizing existing combustion technologies, are being stymied in state after state. For many, coal will be an acceptable resource only if carbon emissions can be captured and sequestered. Assuming we can successfully address the technological problems, carbon capture and sequestration will be expensive, and it won’t be commercially available for at least a decade. All this adds up to a growing energy crisis. It is not as dramatic as the oil embargo of 1973, because it is a confluence of factors, not a single event. But it is just as real. And this time around we will not find salvation in another glut of oil. So today, as in the 1970s, we have reached another teachable moment in terms of energy conservation. We must learn again that energy conservation and more efficient use of energy is the quickest, easiest and cheapest means of getting the most out of existing facilities, delaying the need for new construction, holding costs down for consumers and, in many instances, reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Thirty years from now, I hope whoever is leading APPA does not look back and think, in 2007 we had a teachable moment and we didn’t learn the lesson. ❚ Thi Teachable Moment By Alan H. Richardson President and CEO American Public Power Association 10 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007 PUBLIC POWER

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - November/December 2007

Public Power - November/December 2007 Contents Washington Focus 10 Questions Connecting with the Customer Through Automation AMR or AMI? The High Court’s Antitrust Thunderbolts California’s Push for Demand-Response Plug-In Partners Get Plugged In Wiring Up for Double-Digit Growth For Engineers Safety Community Broadband For Governing Boards DEED Customer Service Hometown Connections Index to Advertisers Parting shot

Public Power - November/December 2007

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