Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - May 12, 2005)

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By Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mr. Jeffords, and Mrs. Clinton):

S. 1031. A bill to enhance the reliability of the electric system; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to reintroduce the Electric Reliability Act of 2005, which I am pleased to introduce with my colleagues, Senator CLINTON and Senator JEFFORDS. This legislation would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--FERC--authority to devise a system of mandatory and enforceable standards for the reliable operation of our Nation's electricity grid.

Enactment of this bill is long overdue. The provisions of this bill have passed the United States Senate many times. They represent crucial steps forward in the effort to modernize our Nation's electricity grid and reform the rules by which it is operated. I believe this body can and must make necessary progress in upgrading our electricity grid.

As surely my colleagues recall, in August of 2003 much of the Northeast and Midwest suffered a massive power outage, affecting 50 million consumers from New York to Michigan. This blackout, the biggest in our Nation's history, has underscored the need for mandatory and enforceable reliability standards--as envisioned in the Electric Reliability Act of 2005. To date, the system has operated under a set of voluntary guidelines, with no concrete penalties for those that break the rules and jeopardize the reliable energy service that is the foundation of our Nation's economy.

Following the August 2003 blackout in the NE, a joint report issued by the United States and Canada the following April recommended a number of policy changes on both sides of our shared border. The first recommendation in that report was to make reliability standards mandatory and enforceable with penalties for non-compliance. The Electric Reliability Security Act of 2005 does exactly that.

While the August 2003 blackout was certainly a potent reminder, the call for reliability legislation dates back at least another 5 years. In 1997, both a Task Force established by the Clinton administration's Department of Energy and a blue ribbon panel formed by the North American Electric Reliability Council--NERC--determined that reliability rules for our Nation's electric system had to be made mandatory and enforceable.

These conclusions resulted, in part, from an August 1996 blackout in the Western Interconnection, where the short-circuit of two overloaded transmission lines near Portland, OR, caused a sweeping outage that knocked out power for up to 16 hours in 10 States, including my home State of Washington. The blackout affected 7.5 million consumers from Idaho to California, resulting in the automatic shut-down of 15 large thermal nuclear generating plants in California and the Southwest--compromising the West's energy supply for several days, even after power had mostly been restored to end-users.

As outlined in Economic Impacts of Infrastructure Failures, a 1997 report submitted to the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, the blackout was estimated to exact between $1 billion and $4 billion in direct and indirect costs to utilities, industry and consumers. The report also detailed the risks the outage posed to public health and safety, including an exponential increase in traffic accidents, hospitals forced to rely on emergency back-up power generation, and the grounding of more than 2,000 airline passengers.

While it took time to develop consensus, the Senate recognized the human and economic stakes associated with the reliable operation of the electricity grid. Stand-alone legislation very similar to what I have introduced today passed this body in June 2000, when this Chamber was under Republican control. And even as the majority has twice changed hands since then, the United States Senate has twice passed the very provisions included in the Electric Reliability Act of 2005 as part of comprehensive energy legislation.

Today I am introducing the Electric Reliability Act of 2005 as I believe it is time for this body to take concrete steps towards ensuring the continued reliable operation of our electric grid. This legislation would mark a substantial achievement in the effort to upgrade the reliability of our Nation's grid and insulate our economy from the disastrous impacts of electricity outages.

I ask my colleagues to support this bill.

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