It’s good to be with all of you and to have a chance to share some thoughts on the task we face together - strengthening the electrical distribution and transmission system that is backbone of our nation’s economy so we can keep power flowing wherever and whenever it is needed.

 

The brainpower assembled in this room ought to be enough to light up the power grid all by itself, but unfortunately we don’t have the technology to do that yet, so I guess we’ll have to stick with more conventional means of delivering electricity.

 

I know you have talked here about the need for regional transmission planning - and for a simplified review process - about how to assure cost recovery on new investments in the transmission system and how to support continued research and development work on transmission technologies. I want you to know that the department is listening and we want to continue to hear from all of you on these issues as we move forward.

 

These discussions are vital to building the consensus we must have among regulators, industry leaders and regional transmission organizations to carry out the work that must be done. Leadership on this issue should not and cannot come from Washington alone. Those with a stake in the system at every level must participate if we are to meet the ever-growing power demands of the information age and provide consumers with truly portable power that can deliver the maximum benefit of market efficiencies in generation and distribution.

 

I see the task before us as similar to the one President Eisenhower persuaded the nation to take on in the 1950s when he prodded Congress and the public at large to invest in the interstate highway system—back then it was the largest public works project the nation had ever undertaken. Eisenhower’s conviction that America had to have a first class network of roads came out of his experience as a young officer taking part in the Army’s transcontinental motor convoy from Washington to San Francisco in 1919.  That trip took 62 days at an average speed of 6 miles an hour, leaving Eisenhower with vivid memories of soldiers and their vehicles bogged down on muddy roads, mired in quicksand and stranded by failing bridges.

 

Today, our regional electrical transmission and distribution system needs to be upgraded and woven together just as our networks of state and local roads needed to be upgraded fifty years ago.

 

If we fail to make the necessary investments and regulatory changes, we risk getting bogged down—not in mud—but in costly and disruptive blackouts or outages such as the ones that hit California in 2001, the Midwest, the Northeast and Canada in 2003 and the Gulf last summer in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

 

We are all well acquainted with the problems. We have built more power plants but we haven’t added enough transmission and distribution facilities to handle their output, and much of our electrical infrastructure is aging and in need of replacement. Over the past year, our government has taken several steps to help solve these problems, as well as the larger energy challenges this nation faces.

 

In his State of the Union address, President Bush proposed the American Competitiveness Initiative and the Advanced Energy Initiative.  The first calls for doubling federal spending on basic scientific research over the next decade, particularly in the physical sciences.  In the past, such research has led to discoveries that have helped us transmit and distribute electricity more efficiently.  Additional benefits are sure to be realized in this area thanks to the President’s new initiative. 

 

The Advanced Energy Initiative will accelerate the development of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind energy. And it will promote new technologies that will make ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells commercially competitive sooner than we had once thought possible.  These technologies have the potential to dramatically change the way we power our homes and businesses and to transform our transportation sector. As part of this initiative, the administration has also launched the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership or GNEP. This is a comprehensive strategy to encourage wider use of clean, safe nuclear energy around the world. GNEP will also spur the development of new methods for recycling nuclear fuel that reduce both waste and the risk that nuclear technologies or nuclear fuel will fall into the wrong hands.

 

Each of these efforts demonstrate the President’s belief, a belief that I share, that science and technology will ultimately help us meet the great challenges facing our society, just as they have throughout our history.  

 

Over time, we expect  these efforts will have a significant impact on the way we produce electric power in this country and on the overall generating capacity in the U.S., increasing the need for a world class transmission and distribution system to carry the load.

 

From a regulatory standpoint, the repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act and its restrictions on investments, which recently took effect, was a step in the right direction. I expect market forces will now play a stronger role in aligning utility companies and encouraging investment in new transmission and distribution facilities.

 

On the legislative front, the Energy Policy Act, signed by President Bush last summer, gave us the tools we needed to systematically improve the capacity and reliability of our electrical grid. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission now has the authority to designate an Electric Reliability Organization that will develop and enforce nationwide reliability standards.

 

One of the Energy Department’s assignments under the act was to undertake a national study of congestion problems in the power grid and then designate national interest electric transmission corridors where immediate improvements are needed.

 

We began that process earlier this month with our notice in the Federal Register inviting comment on the sections of the grid we should consider designating national interest electric transmission corridors. Now is the time for us to hear from you about where the most serious bottlenecks exist, where the worst reliability problems are occurring and where the greatest gains for consumers could be realized by easing the flow of electric power.

 

I do understand the intense local concerns that are involved when new siting for high-voltage power lines is proposed – sensitivities that all of you deal with first hand. As we move forward, we are committed to listening closely to what you have to say about power conditions in your markets and regions and how to address them. With your help, I am confident that we will all get this vital job done and the nation will be better for it.

 

Thank you again for joining us here in Washington and participating in this forum. I look forward to carrying on this discussion with you in the months ahead.