Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act

Bill: 110-s-2076
Sponsor: Sen. Reid, Harry [D-NV]
Introduced: 2007-09-20 in the Senate
Policy area: Energy
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Alternative energy sources
Department of Energy
Electric power production
Electric power transmission
Electric vehicles
Energy conservation
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Geothermal resources
Government Operations and Politics
Government vehicles
Housing and Community Development
Independent regulatory commissions
Law
Power marketing administrations
Public Lands and Natural Resources
Science, Technology, Communications
Solar energy
Technological innovations
Tennessee Valley Authority
Transportation and Public Works
Wind power

Summary:
action_date: 2007-09-20
text: 
Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act - Amends the Federal Power Act to require the President to designate as national renewable energy zones specified areas that have the potential to generate 1 gigawatt of electricity from renewable energy, a significant portion of which could be generated in a rural area or on federal land. Prohibits the President from including in such zones specified federal land that is subject to protective management policies that are inconsistent with energy development.

Requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to promulgate regulations to ensure that: (1) specified public utility transmission providers that finance renewable electricity connection facilities in such zones recover incurred costs and a reasonable return on equity associated with the new transmission capacity; and (2) not less than 75% of the capacity of specified high-voltage transmission facilities and lines is used for electricity from renewable energy.

Sets forth provisions concerning: (1) the financing of a renewable energy trunkline and renewable electricity connection facilities; (2) the identification of renewable electricity connection facilities that are required to substantially increase the generation of electricity from renewable energy; and (3) the promotion of energy conservation and renewable energy electric resource development by federal transmitting utilities.

Requires the Bonneville Power Administration and the Western Area Power Administration to establish: (1) a program focusing on improving the integration of wind energy into their transmission grids; and (2) a joint program focusing on the development and integration of geothermal energy resources into their grids, as well as non-grid, distributed applications in their service territories.

Requires the Federal Power Administrations and the Tennessee Valley Authority to establish a program focusing on integrating solar energy into their grids and into remote and distributed applications in their service territories.

Requires the federal transmitting utilities to undertake geographically diverse projects within their respective service territories to acquire and demonstrate electric and hybrid vehicles and related technologies as part of their fleets of vehicles.

Requires such programs to develop technology and devices to use electricity from renewable energy sources as the main fuel source for vehicles.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-09-20
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (text of measure as introduced: CR S11857-11859)
action_date: 2007-09-20
text: Introduced in Senate