August 25, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 25, 2020
The American Public Power Association recently joined a coalition of 38 organizations, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in support of including energy innovation legislation in the House’s fall legislative agenda.
“Our diverse organizations recognize and agree that climate change is an important national priority that demands Congressional attention,” APPA and the other organizations said in their Aug. 17 letter to Pelosi and McCarthy.
“While we may not agree on everything, we believe there is much common ground upon which all sides of the debate can come together to begin to address climate change, promote American technological leadership, and foster continued economic growth,” the groups said.
“There is a growing consensus that the development and commercialization of new technologies are an important factor that will determine how quickly and at what cost greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced,” the letter said.
The groups noted several bills that could be brought to the House floor this fall to address energy and climate technology and innovation, including:
APPA and the other organizations also highlighted H.R. 5428, the Grid Modernization Research and Development Act.
This bill would authorize several DOE research and development efforts, including a smart grid regional demonstration initiative, a program related to grid modeling, sensing, and advanced operation and controls, and a program on integrating electric vehicles onto the grid.
The bill also would create a grant and technical assistance program for which electric utilities, as well as state, local, and tribal governments, are eligible, to improve grid resiliency.
The groups note that the list of bills included in the letter is not comprehensive, but represents bipartisan efforts, that if signed into law, could accelerate technological breakthroughs and adoption of cleaner or more efficient energy technologies.
The letter is available here.
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