Press Release: Must Overcome Energy Transmission Challenges
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OFFICE OF GOV. BILL RITTER, JR.
WWW.COLORADO.GOV/GOVERNOR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, OCT. 20, 2009
CONTACTS
Evan Dreyer, 720.350.8370, evan.dreyer@state.co.us
Todd Hartman, 303.866.2262, todd.hartman@state.co.us
GOV. RITTER ADDRESSES 3rd ANNUAL NEW ENERGY ECONOMY CONFERENCE
Governor says Colorado, nation must overcome electricity transmission challenges
Listen to Governor Ritter's Remarks here
Gov. Bill Ritter today addressed more than 600 energy stakeholders at the third annual New Energy Economy Conference, saying Colorado and the nation must overcome significant transmission challenges in order to achieve a cleaner and more secure energy future.
The conference held in Denver, focused on addressing the coming challenges facing the production, distribution and consumption of electric power from state, federal and utility perspectives. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the Governor's Energy Office, the Office of Consumer Counsel and Energy Outreach Colorado sponsored the conference.
"This annual conference brings together the best and brightest of the clean energy industry to address the critical issues facing the New Energy Economy, including how to continue to build on its successes," Gov. Ritter said. "We've created a national model that is guiding the transformation of how our children and grandchildren will produce and consume energy. The challenge before us now is to continue this innovation and to usher in a new century of American energy leadership."
The governor spoke of the importance of the state's Climate Action Plan, Renewable Portfolio Standard and other legislative and policy initiatives that are creating jobs and driving new market development in Colorado. The Governor cited this year's passage of Senate Bill 51, which in just 10 months has sparked a market for solar energy leasing in the state.
Moving forward, Gov. Ritter called for more regional and state-to-state cooperation and to consider new approaches for how transmission is paid for and built. He highlighted an upcoming report on the issue from the Governor's Energy Office.
"My Energy Office will soon be releasing the Renewable Energy Development Infrastructure, or REDI report," Gov. Ritter said. "This report addresses the need for transmission, discusses the challenges and offers suggestions on how to move the effort forward and how to resolve the barriers to our current transmission dilemma."
Here is the complete text of Gov. Ritter's remarks as prepared for delivery:
Good morning. Thank you, Rico, for that kind introduction. Thank you as well to Public Utility Commissioners Binz, Baker and Tarpey, and to Tom Plant, director of the Governor's Energy Office, and Alice Madden, my climate change adviser.
Thanks to all of you here this morning. I know how hard all of you are working to move our New Energy Economy forward.
This is the audience that is going to make the difference in moving us to a clean energy future.
I also want to thank the Public Utilities Commission, the Office of Consumer Counsel, Energy Outreach Colorado and my Energy Office for putting on this third annual conference.
I also want to recognize Dept. of Energy Undersecretary Kristina Johnson, who will be speaking this afternoon.
We are a different state today because of our partnership with the Department of Energy -- a partnership on so many fronts.
In Colorado, we're at the leading edge of a clean-energy revolution.
We've created a national model that is guiding the transformation in how our children and grandchildren will produce and consume energy in the future.
Our success is built on the work of many partners, many in this room today: entrepreneurs, utilities, the federal government, research institutions, local governments.
We've created a model strategy for every state in the country to follow. We've built a template for a comprehensive national strategy that marries energy policy with climate policy.
During my campaign in 2006, I filmed my first TV ad in a wind farm. The tagline was: "Building wind farms in wheat fields and making our universities research leaders in renewable energy."
Then, within my first 100 days in office, we doubled the renewable portfolio standard, which has been a key driver of the New Energy Economy.
Since then, I've signed nearly four dozen laws to support and advance the New Energy Economy, laws that are attracting new businesses and jobs to Colorado, laws that are making it easier for people to afford renewable energy in their homes and businesses.
We published a Climate Action Plan setting ambitious goals to reduce green house gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050.
We are literally growing the nation's most innovative and forward-looking clean-energy ecosystem for today and for generations to come. It's an ecosystem that includes:
- Public and private R&D. Just yesterday I joined leaders from Siemens Energy and NREL to commission a massive new 2.3 megawatt wind turbine. The turbine is the centerpiece of what will be the largest public-private research partnership for wind power ever undertaken. And tomorrow, in Aurora, we will celebrate the opening one of the largest test facilities for solar technologies in the world.
- Transferring technologies to the marketplace.
- Creating jobs and attracting companies like Vestas, Abound Solar, Ascent Solar, and new companies like SunRun Solar.
Even in difficult times, the New Energy Economy continues to shine.
We also have great partners in our largest utilities, including Xcel Energy, Tri-State and cities like Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. They've shown bold leadership in diversifying their portfolio while providing reliable and affordable energy.
They're not alone. Many of Colorado's REA's and municipal utilities are part of this growing momentum. And we encourage other electricity providers and distributors to be a part of this critical work.
As I mentioned earlier, we also have tremendous partners with the DOE and the Obama administration, including through the Recovery Act.
The three legs of the stools to this strategy are increasing access to information, increasing access to skilled workers, and increasing access to dollars.
We've already seen the DOE make major grant awards to companies like UQM Technologies, to researchers at NREL, and to energy and weatherization projects across the state.
Consumers will benefit from more than $4 million from the Recovery Act for rebates for energy efficient appliances.
My Energy Office has crafted an innovative plan to direct nearly $140 million from the Recovery Act to strengthen Colorado's new energy infrastructure:
- Nearly $80 million will go to weatherize homes over the next three years. This is critical work that reduces energy demand -- the lowest-hanging fruit in building our energy security.
- And my Energy Office will direct nearly $60 million to a wide array of creative efforts, including solar rebates, expansion of our high-performance building program, better efficiency programs, and final-stage grant programs.
These initiatives will all help increase our energy security, our national security, our economic security and our environmental security.
Protecting the climate is interlocked with building our New Energy Economy.
That's why we issued Colorado's first Climate Action Plan, and it's why I've made it clear to Congress and the President himself that comprehensive energy and climate legislation must include a major role for natural gas.
Natural gas is a "mission critical" fuel to our New Energy Economy.
My administration is doing everything possible to increase demand and create new markets for natural gas.
We also are working on one of the other tremendous energy challenges facing us today: transmission -- a way to move electrons from clean energy sources to where they're in greatest demand.
In Colorado -- indeed in much of the country -- many of our best renewable energy sources are a long way from the places that require the most electricity.
We need a new effort at collaboration to ensure wind power on the Eastern Plains and solar power in the San Luis Valley can travel to the load centers of the Front Range.
We must work more closely together and plan with greater foresight to ensure needed transmission for utility-scale renewable power.
We must be open to more regional and state-to-state cooperation, and consider new approaches for how transmission is built, and how we pay for it.
To this point, my energy office will soon be releasing an important report: The Renewable Energy Development Infrastructure, or REDI, report.
The REDI report -- the result of another partnership with the DOE -- discusses in great detail the need for transmission in our New Energy Economy, the challenges we face and suggestions on how to move the effort forward.
I know that will be a topic discussed today. I encourage all of us to approach this creatively, with collaborative minds.
Let me just wrap up with this. Our energy future is changing all around us. In Colorado, in the United States, across the globe.
The world is waiting for the U.S. to lead. We must seize the initiative and lay the groundwork for a sustainable future, a strong economy and a clean environment.
This is about new ways to generate energy, more efficient ways to use it, and better ways to store and transport it.
We're limited only by our imagination and ingenuity, which have never been in short supply in Colorado or the U.S.
We're looking forward and leading the way for the rest of the country.
We're inventing a new future, and energy can be the catalyst for the economic revolution -- the economic transformation -- that leads to a more secure future.
Thank you.