Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolution

Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to join Senator Cornyn in introducing the ``Preventing Outages With Enhanced Resilience and Operations Nationwide (POWER ON) Act of 2021''.

This legislation would authorize the Federal government to offer grants to States and Tribal governments to modernize the electrical grid and better withstand extreme weather events and natural disasters.

It would also serve as a catalyst for our Nation's research and development and deployment of new technologies that will ensure our Nation's grid can meet the challenges of climate change and continue to provide reliable electricity to our citizens.

The ``POWER ON Act'' is a bipartisan step-forward to combating the devastating impact of climate change and keep the lights on for everyone.

This legislation would help protect America's electric grid and make it more resilient.

Climate change is real and nowhere is that fact more clear than in my State of California. As the State continues to experience historic wildfires, droughts, dangerous mudslides, prolonged heatwaves, and extreme wind events that prompt sustained power shutoffs, the Federal government can and must help. We must work with States to invest in our electrical infrastructure and make our grids more reliable.

This legislation would establish a grant program through the Department of Energy for States and Tribal governments to award funds to eligible entities to deploy projects that enhance the resilience of the electric grid.

This legislation specifically includes natural disasters, such as wildfires, and extreme weather such as heatwaves, drought, and high winds as threats to the resiliency of the electrical grid. Additionally, it explicitly includes Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which have become all too routine in California in recent years, as eligible events.

To protect ratepayers, this legislation ensures that a utility may not seek any cost recovery for any grant awarded through this new program.

Lastly, this legislation would establish a grant program through the Department of Energy for research, development, demonstration, and commercial application of innovations to enhance resilience and strengthen emergency response and management of the electric grid.

California has always been a leader in research and development, and this new program would allow universities, national laboratories and others to make our grid smarter and more resilient. This legislation will not only work to harden our grid but it will allow our world- renowned institutions to usher in new technologies that will keep our grid and our citizens safe.

I thank my colleague Senator Cornyn and our House partners, Representatives Doris Matsui, Jared Huffman, Doug LaMalfa, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Kevin Brady, and Michael Burgess for championing this bill.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the ``POWER ON Act'' as quickly as possible.

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