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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE September 3, 2003 I commend you Mr. Chairman, for holding these hearings. The blackout of 2003 had devastating consequences for many Americans, and the people of my District suffered the longest. The blackout was not a mere inconvenience: nearly every aspect of our lives were disrupted, factories were closed, and our economy suffered. To those of us in Michigan, it was particularly distressing that we had such little control over a matter that appears to have begun outside our state. That said, the residents of Michigan have a lot to be proud of. Citizens, public officials, local businesses, the local power companies, police and firefighters all pulled together to get us through the crisis. We now must begin the process of learning what went wrong and how to prevent future widespread blackouts. That is our first priority. My own view is that Congress should take immediate action to enact transmission reliability provisions that are contained in both the House and Senate's comprehensive energy bills. House Democratic staff offered this during last year's energy conference. A number of other very controversial issues are contained in those bills, and while Chairmen Tauzin and Domenici are committed to bringing the conference to a prompt conclusion, the making of energy policy tends to defy the best intentions and timetables. The goal of pursuing the energy conference with full vigor is not at odds with my suggestion that Congress separate and pass consensus reliability provisions now. A reliability bill may not provide the full answer to the challenges before us, but there is broad consensus that it is a necessary part of that response. By all rights, this should be a bill for the suspension calendar. As the investigations proceed, we may learn more about remedies and it may be possible to include them in the comprehensive energy bill. To that end, I will be introducing the reliability provisions of the energy bill as a separate bill, and I urge the Chairman and Members of this Committee to join me in ensuring that this bill is moved to the suspension calendar. I am pleased that the Department of Energy moved promptly to initiate an investigation into the causes of the outages and actions to prevent future blackouts, but I do have some reservations about this undertaking. It appears that the "U.S.-Canada Task Force" will involve participation by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Certainly these two entities have expertise, data, and personnel that could assist with such an inquiry, but I am concerned that their involvement in the Task Force not preclude them from conducting their own independent investigations and reaching their own conclusions. Indeed, under the Federal Power Act, FERC has clear authority and arguably an obligation to conduct its own investigation, and it is critical that it function as the independent regulatory agency Congress intended it to be.I thank the Chairman and my colleagues for their attention, and look forward to hearing from our witnesses. - 30 - (Contact: Jodi Bennett, 202-225-3641) | |
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