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Forbes Breaking News
  • 4 months ago
During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) questioned Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission nominee, David LaCerte, about the permitting process for hydroelectric projects.
Transcript
00:00Senator Daines, who just paid me a profound compliment, noting my uncanny
00:03resemblance to Mr. LeCert, which is a huge compliment to me, and I put down to
00:08Mr. LeCert, you know, 20 years ago you had the, a lot of the women in the country
00:12were getting the Rachel haircut, and now we're all getting the LeCert, so. Senator
00:16Daines. If the chairman would put away his razor for about a month, I think we'd
00:20have a real uncanny resemblance there, so thank you Chairman Lee, as well as
00:24Ranking Member Heinrich. I want to first congratulate the nominees today, and I
00:29want to invite you both to come out to Montana to see the issues that we're
00:33talking about here today. We are rich in energy resources in Montana, which we're
00:37very grateful. The FERC's mission, as stated on their website, is, and I quote,
00:43to assist consumers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient
00:52energy. FERC is not, and should not be, a climate regulator. FERC is, and should remain,
01:02an independent body that focuses on safety and economics and stays true to the
01:08mission. My first question is for both Ms. Sweat and Mr. LeCert, and it's been the
01:15same for many of the FERC nominees that have come before this committee over the past
01:19several years. It's a yes or no question. Do you agree that FERC's primary mission is to
01:27be an economic and safety regulator? I'll start with Ms. Sweat. Thank you for the
01:33question, Senator. Yes, I absolutely agree that FERC is an economic regulator,
01:38primarily. Mr. LeCert. Yes, Senator. Will you commit to review each decision that comes
01:47before you at the Commission fairly, impartially, and through the lens of
01:53providing affordable, reliable, and safe energy? Ms. Sweat. Yes, Senator. I make that
01:59commitment wholeheartedly. Mitchell LeCert. Yes, Senator. Absolutely. Thank you. I want to
02:06pivot and talk a bit about hydropower permitting reform. Hydropower provides the
02:12second largest share of electricity generation in Montana. It's a wonderful
02:18source of renewable energy and baseload power and a very affordable and reliable
02:25power. Many of the existing dams are currently undergoing relicensing.
02:33Unfortunately, the existing process is broken and can take nearly a decade, a decade,
02:41to relicense a hydropower dam that has been operating for four decades. I've worked
02:49long and hard in a very bipartisan way in this committee to make changes to that
02:54process. This includes modest changes to speed up the process, focus it on the
03:01actual effects of the project moving forward, instead of a wish list of mandatory
03:08conditions from agencies and outside stakeholders. My question again for Ms.
03:14Sweat and Ms. LeCert. Do you agree that we need to speed up licensing and
03:19relicensing for hydropower in order to continue to grow and maintain renewable
03:26baseload sources? Thank you for the question, Senator. Given our unprecedented
03:35demand that we're facing getting every single molecule of electricity on the
03:39grid is of tantamount importance and that includes hydro and the wonderful
03:43resource it is, particularly for your state. And I understand that these hydro
03:48license owners are facing diminishing resources and it's very difficult for them
03:53in general to operate in many cases and I am committed to doing whatever I can if I
03:59have the honor being confirmed at taking a hard look at FERC's piece of the
04:03relicensing process, although I understand there are many players there, as you
04:07mentioned, states and several federal agencies. So within the powers that
04:11Congress grants the agency, I commit to you that I will take a hard look at it if
04:15I'm confirmed with my colleagues to see what we can do to be more efficient for
04:19your license owners. Thank you. Mr. LeCert. Senator, thank you. I first want to
04:25acknowledge that hydro is an important component of our energy mix and we need
04:29to do a better job of not only reforming the licensing for hydro but across the
04:33board. It takes too long to do business with our government, it takes too long to
04:36invest in our infrastructure, and we need to do a better job everywhere. And first,
04:40and also I want to confirm with the record here that I accept your invitation to
04:44come to Montana. All right, thank you. It could involve a fly rod here, speaking of
04:49hydropower, so. You know, I'll do whatever it takes. All right, thank you. Well thank
04:55you. And let me just close with this brief statement. And Ms. White, you just
05:00mentioned the demands and needs that we have going forward here in terms of
05:03energy in our country. If we're going to meet demand, we simply need more of
05:10virtually every energy source. We simply need to be building more, which includes
05:16permitting more, and trying to accelerate getting, as you said, more of these
05:21electrons on the grid. More natural gas, more coal, more hydropower, more nuclear,
05:29more geothermal, more wind, more solar. We need more electrons. I encourage the
05:35nominees to keep that in the back, and I might argue the front of your minds when
05:41you're making decisions on the future of U.S. energy policy. So thank you for being
05:46before this committee today, and for willingness to serve in these very
05:49important roles for our great country.
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