Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - September 06, 2006)

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By Ms. MURKOWSKI:

S. 851. A bill to provide for the extension of preliminary permit periods by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for certain hydroelectric projects in the State of Alaska; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation to give private developers more time to complete planning and financing for a complex of three high-mountain lake-tap hydroelectric projects that promise to provide at an electric power for Southeast Alaska and for the Pacific Northwest.

Today, I introduce legislation to extend by a total of six years the time for developers to secure data necessary to determine the feasibility and prepare a development application for three individual hydroelectric projects, all located up Thomas Bay in Southeast Alaska, near Petersburg, AK. This legislation will give time for construction of the estimated $75 million, 45-megawatt Cascade Creek project, the $56 million, 30-megawatt Scenery Creek, and the $40 million, 20-megawatt Delta Creek hydroelectric projects to be built.

The extensions are needed and justified since the three renewable energy projects can only proceed after a $30 million, 27-mile high-voltage transmission line is constructed in Alaska to the U.S.-Canada border, after another $130 million is spent for 150 miles of new line are built in Canada, after $120 million is spent for 140 miles of transmission line upgrades are finished on the Canadian side of the border to move the excess power to Skeena near Terrace in Canada, and after portions of the proposed Southeast Alaska, Electric, Intertie are finished to also permit excess power from the existing Swan Lake and Tyee Lake hydroelectric projects, and the proposed Mahoney Lake project near Ketchikan, AK, to be shared among Panhandle communities and to connect to export transmission lines.

The developers of the Thomas Bay project, Cascade, LLC., deserve a time extension since the company, so far, has focused all of its planning efforts on winning approval and financing for the vital electrical interconnection between Southeast Alaska and Canada, not on finishing the three individual power projects. The State of Alaska only in early summer 2006 approved a grant of $3.2 million to pay for planning to develop a comprehensive plan and review the economic feasibility of using several of Southeast Alaska's nearly 100 potential hydroelectric sites to provide power for both local needs and for export of the surplus power to the Pacific Northwest power grid to help with financing of the 95 megawatts of installed capacity, 410 gigawatt, power project.

These hydroelectric projects all involve tapping high mountain lakes for power. They do not require the damming of fish streams, so they have no negative environmental impacts. They will produce electricity at substantial savings over the 40- to 50-cents per kilowatt hour cost of generating power from expensive diesel fuel in the region and they will also reduce the effects of local air pollution and reduce carbon dioxide generation through the avoidance of fossil fuel combustion.

Congress routinely extends the three-year deadline for worthy potential FERC-licensed power projects to provide additional time for completion of preliminary planning, financing and design. It is certainly appropriate to grant these three projects that are so interconnected this additional time to work out the contractual and financial planning and to finish the environmental studies needed for construction permits to be obtained.

Developing renewable energy that can be produced without any environmental impacts on streams and the fish and wildlife they support is an increasingly important task of government. This bill will help such environmentally-sensitive development occur and will help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign fossil fuels. I hope for speedy passage of this measure.

http://thomas.loc.gov/