State Regulators Distrust FERC Siting
The nine-month survey of 11 state regulatory commissions and major national environmental organizations found that while both groups admit that the U.S. transmission system should be improved both for reliability and environmental purposes, they believe placing that power in the hands of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will lead to overly expensive lines that are not all necessarily needed.
Many of the state regulators surveyed said they do not believe FERC could adequately balance local costs and needs versus the needs of a few states, the report says.
"State regulators believe almost unanimously that FERC-sited lines will be too expensive. The problem is that FERC is looking at a grand design, the transmission superhighway, which will benefit a few states at the expense of others," the report says. "And state authorities have little confidence that federal regulators can successfully balance competing needs. As one commissioner simply put it, 'The feds will bigfoot you.'"
It is not surprising that the local authorities are bothered by the FERC siting of electric transmission. The underlying problem of the situation is that the State regulators must deal with the local attitudes to such an extent that siting sometimes becomes impossible. However, this federal process makes it even less attractive for local jurisdictions.
