The House Committee on Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy & Power questioned the wisdom of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy in linking transmission development to renewable resources. FERC’s plan to regionalize transmission decisions and the resultant cost allocation among entire areas of the country (Order 1000) is suspect of overriding state and local authority over new power lines. “It smells like a subsidy for renewable energy,” Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) said Oct. 13. The pushback by the majority politicians on the panel is against the concept of one state, like California, requiring a social policy of a renewables portfolio standard, while the state next door does not have the same alternative energy policy. New transmission lines are expected to be required to integrate new renewables to meet those social policies. FERC chair Jon Wellinghoff assured committee members there is “no subsidy” for renewables. While California--for the most part--is an island in its Western region managed by the California Independent System Operator, there are big municipal utilities that are not a part of the grid operator’s zone. Chief among them are the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. While the regional consolidation ruling drew no ire from the California Public Utilities Commission nor the California Independent System Operator, it did run afoul of SMUD. The Sacramento muni fears that if the FERC regionalized transmission allocation plan is adopted, “We’ll ultimately get imposed costs we have not signed up for and benefits we may not agree exist,” SMUD chief executive officer John DiStasio told lawmakers. He added, the siting move by FERC “undermines our effort to invest in local energy solutions.” The timing of the hearing was coincidental with the Oct. 12 decision by DOE Secretary Steve Chu not to delegate the department’s siting authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but to keep it inter-agency. “DOE abused the process by designating massive transmission corridors” throughout the nation, said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA). He added that he “wants to make sure that interstate transmission projects aren’t blocked for purely parochial reasons.” Still, he said that he thought the DOE’s decision not to turn over total authority to FERC “was the right decision.”