Herding Cats! — Federal Agencies and Obama Administration Attempt to Streamline Grid Siting Requirements for Renewable Projects

A Special Report from Colorado Energy News and Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck

The Obama Administration is working through the White House Council on Environmental Quality and eight federal agencies to expedite and simplify the otherwise complex review process undertaken by federal agencies in deciding whether to approve the development of electricity transmission lines that cross federal lands.

In October, those eight federal agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) that calls for a single agency to take the lead in reviewing and approving permit applications for siting such projects on federal land and shepherding projects through the complex federal review process. The MOU was signed by representatives of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy and the Interior, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and Council on Environmental Quality.

Although the White House and Congress have invested considerable time and money to achieve President Obama’s goal of doubling the amount of renewable energy generation in the U.S. by 2012, many proposed renewable generation and transmission projects have been delayed by the bureaucracy of authorization within multiple federal agencies. Proposed projects that are to be located in remote areas and on public lands often face significant approval hurdles prior to breaking ground. As a practical matter, the regulatory review process has often involved sequential reviews by multiple agencies, with each review occurring on a different timetable and by different personnel. Project developers are faced with the varying goals and directives of each agency, in addition to the many state, local and private interests in these projects.

Concurrent Applications Review

Under the MOU, federal agencies reviewing a proposed transmission project located on federal lands will review the application concurrently, instead of sequentially. This is predicted to cut the review time by identifying particular agency issues much earlier in the review process. The MOU also directs the eight agencies to facilitate coordination and environmental compliance review not only among the federal agencies involved, but also with states, tribes, the project applicant and other stakeholders. The MOU announcement complements the Administration’s pledge to invest $3.4 billion in recovery funds in developing technologies to strengthen the nation’s electric transmission grid and promote more efficient energy use.

This effort builds on other significant efforts that have been taken to coordinate and expedite the review process for transmission lines and renewable energy generation projects between Federal and State Governments. For example, the Department of the Interior recently entered into an agreement with the State of California that, among other things, (1) establishes a Renewable Energy Policy Group of senior policy representatives to guide the cooperative work; (2) develops a strategy to identify areas suitable and acceptable for renewable energy development; (3) identifies renewable energy resource zones based on renewable energy development potential and environmental, wildlife and conservation criteria; (4) prioritizes application processing for solar development in renewable energy zones; and (5) coordinates with federal and state agencies to identify energy and transmission needs and opportunities and to designate transmission corridors.

Congressional Efforts

In addition to these efforts, Congress is pushing those agencies to explore other ways to promote renewable energy development in general. Two Subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee recently held hearings to further understand and explore agency initiatives to overcome barriers to developing renewable energy and siting transmission lines. The Committees heard testimony from the Department of the Interior, as well as project developers and environmental groups. According to testimony from Marci Lynn Burke, Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) is expediting permitting for 32 “fast track” renewable energy projects that have the potential to qualify for financial incentives under provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. According to Ms. Burke, these fast track projects include 13 solar energy projects, 9 wind energy projects and 3 geothermal energy projects, with a total combined capacity of approximately 4600 megawatts. BLM has also established renewable energy coordination offices in four states (California, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming) to coordinate and streamline permitting projects for renewable energy projects on public lands.

Also testifying at the hearings was Tom C. Wray, Project Manager for Sunzia Southwest Transmission Project. Sunzia is an interstate extra high-voltage transmission project providing strategic grid interconnections in New Mexico and Arizona. The company currently has a facility plant with two 500 kilovolt alternating current transmission lines, with several interconnecting substations along the course of the project. In his testimony, Mr. Wray credits much of Sunzia’s success in moving through the federal, state and local approval processes to its extensive and early outreach efforts to groups within the community that traditionally may have been opponents to transmission projects. Sunzia offered suggestions to Congress on how to better promote renewable energy and transmission development on federal lands, including vetting transmission projects through a regional planning process, undertaking a robust alternatives analysis upfront to avoid siting in areas with significant impacts, and further streamlining and coordinating the various agency environmental, cultural and wildlife reviews.

The Jury is Still Out

For years, Congress and various administrations have recognized the need to improve the processes for evaluating proposed transmission and other facilities on federal lands. The recent efforts by the Obama Administration, Congress and States are certainly a well-intentioned effort to improve upon the existing processes. Even with these recent efforts, however, multi-jurisdictional projects that have significant controversy will remain complex endeavors. Even with a reduction in the required multi-level documentation and review, internal agency culture and decision-making processes are slow to change. Thus, only time will tell whether these modifications actually reduce timelines.

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Article printed from Colorado Energy News: http://coloradoenergynews.com

URL to article: http://coloradoenergynews.com/2010/01/herding-cats-federal-agencies-and-obama-administration-attempt-to-streamline-transmission-siting-requirements-for-renewable-projects/