CECA Launches Blue Ribbon Forum to Address Transmission System Improvements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2003

Contact:
Peggy Welsh
202-659-0404

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Consumer Energy Council of America (CECA), the nation's senior public interest energy policy organization, announced today the creation of a broad-based blue ribbon panel to recommend cost-effective measures for upgrading the transmission system and providing power that is secure, high quality and reliable.

The Forum, "Keeping the Power Flowing: Ensuring a Stronger Transmission System to Support Consumer Needs for Cost-Effectiveness, Security and Reliability," will address consumer benefits of upgrades to the transmission system. The Forum will examine the needs of the transmission system and will make recommendations to policymakers to resolve barriers, and develop and implement regional solutions. It will explore the costs and benefits to consumers of various options for financing improvements to the system. The Forum will also identify non-wires solutions to improve reliability.

Participants in the Forum include leading consumer advocates, key energy industry executives, commissioners from FERC and state PUCs, environmentalists and academia. The Chair of the Forum is John M. Derrick, Chairman of the Board of PEPCO Holdings, Inc. Vice Chairs include James A. Burg, Commissioner of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission and Chair of the NARUC Electricity Committee; Alan Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Public Power Association; David Owens, Executive Vice President, Edison Electric Institute; Glenn English, Chief Executive Officer of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association; and Robert Fri, former Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and former President of Resources for the Future. A preliminary participants list (to date) is attached.

The CECA Transmission Forum will undertake five primary examinations essential to recommending policy solutions: 1.) How is transmission planning conducted on a regional basis, how is the public engaged in the process, and are consumer concerns addressed in the process? 2.) What are the expectations for the transmission system? What will it take for the system to meet these expectations? Who will pay? 3.) How can existing barriers be resolved in a way that allows consumers to derive additional benefits? 4.) What are the costs and benefits for consumers of changes to the transmission system? What are the pros and cons of alternative financing options to encourage investment? and 5.) What should policymakers do to ensure that changes to the transmission system provide public benefits?

Forum Chair John Derrick said, "The important question of how consumers' needs are met in the future will be a critical element in Congressional actions and efforts by state PUCs to determine the optimal structure of the electric power transmission system. CECA's consensus-based Forum will provide policy recommendations that will ensure benefits to all classes of consumers."

CECA President Ellen Berman noted, "Given the stature and diversity of the leaders at the table, this will be the most influential panel in the nation to examine the transmission system from the perspective of the consumer. That is a unique element of the successful consensus process that CECA has developed over three decades."

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