Sen. Reid: Feds Should Trump State Regulations in Building National Smart Grid.
When it comes to using billions of federal stimulus dollars to build out a “smart” electricity distribution grid, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn’t want state regulators standing in the way.
That’s the gist of comment the Nevada Democrat made at a Washington D.C. clean energy meeting Monday, according to Reuters. Reid plans to introduce energy legislation on Thursday to speed the building of transmission infrastructure to bring remote solar-thermal, wind and geothermal power sources to population centers — and the bill would, among other things, seek to give the federal government the authority to build new transmission lines whether or not states like it, he said.
While states will have a role to play in where transmission lines go, ”there may come a time when the federal government has to step in” to overrule their objections, Reid said at the National Clean Energy Project, an event hosted by the Center for American Progress. (The event was a who’s-who of energy and political big-wigs, including former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Texas oil billionaire and wind power and natural gas-fueled vehicle evangelist T. Boone Pickens, among others.)
