Most of you know that many energy projects, particularly transmission lines, have been filed under pretexts by utility companies. JCP&L's Monmouth County Reliability Project is a good example of this. Many of these projects were poorly designed and largely driven by incentives allowed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). Critics called these incentives FERC candies.
In a formal notice issued earlier this year, FERC requested comments on its transmission incentives policy.
Guess what? In a filing submitted today, a large group of consumer organizations (18 signatories from 14 different states), including RAGE and CHARGE, have banded together and submitted comments from the consumers’ perspective to FERC.
Link to consumer organizations’ FERC filing:
https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20190626-5057
In addition to the filing, notable activist and blogger Keryn Newman of StopPATH WV fame wrote a great blog about this filing.
From her blog - “We've all been through the trenches of battling unneeded transmission. Some of the organizations have been successful, and projects have been withdrawn, cancelled, or altered. Some are still fighting. When we come together to speak with a common voice we leverage our successes and prepare for the battles ahead. While many voices will be heard at FERC, ours will be the only one from actual consumers who pay for transmission incentives.”
Link to Keryn Newman’s blog:
http://stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog/consumer-organizations-drop-a-little-common-sense-on-ferc-transmission-incentives-inquiry?fbclid=IwAR0g-n_OHJ_20BDQBwMe6qs7_IBe-iu4SljfuDpE26DHpDypUVXeV0hJCdw
Thank you to Keryn for spearheading these efforts and for “herding cats”.