Lankford Presses Need for Resilient and Reliable All-of-the-Above Energy Sources

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s Q&A.

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today participated in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Reliability, Resiliency, and Affordability of Electric Service. Lankford pointed out how the Biden Administration wants the energy resources to be 100 percent renewable energy by 2035 but noted how long it takes to build the necessary infrastructure that supports renewable energy sources that support the needs of Americans. Lankford also discussed the need for reliability power sources to be available to fill in when intermittent sources, like wind and solar, suddenly go offline. 

Lankford questioned several witnesses in today’s hearing including Mr. Mark A. Gabriel, Administrator and Chief Executive Officer for the Western Area Power Administration; The Honorable Pat Wood, III Chief Executive Officer, Hunt Energy Network and Former Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and Mr. James R. Robb, President and Chief Executive Officer for North American Electric Reliability Corporation. 

Lankford questioned several witnesses in today’s hearing including Mr. Mark A. Gabriel, Administrator and Chief Executive Officer for the Western Area Power Administration; The Honorable Pat Wood, III Chief Executive Officer, Hunt Energy Network and Former Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and Mr. James R. Robb, President and Chief Executive Officer for North American Electric Reliability Corporation. 

Excerpts

On Biden’s Goal for 100 percent Renewable Energy by 2035:

Lankford: I’m tracking through the Biden team, they have announced that they want the power sector to be at 100 percent renewable by 2035. I would assume that’s going to require some transmission lines and trying to be able to connect places that have more renewables and some places that do not. Mr. Gabriel would you make that same assumption as well that we are going to have to have increased number of transmission lines to be able to hit that kind of goal by 2035?

Gabriel: …yes I do and I also believe that we’re going to have to upgrade some of the existing transmission systems that we currently have. 

Lankford: Well I noticed that just for what you’re dealing with, we started pulling through what—I love the name of this, the Trans West Express Transmission Project. I love the name “express” in there. The Trans West Express Transmission Project, it looks like this project started in 2007 and still has not commenced construction yet at this point yet based on permitting, studies, rights-of-way, surveys—is that correct?

Gabriel: That’s correct. I’ve only been here since 2013, and I will say in 2015 I signed the record of decision for the project to move forward. It was similar to the comment I made earlier, someone has got to agree to the off take in order for these lines to be built so that there can be transmission agreements and that’s really been the hang-up thus far.

Lankford: So this conversation about that we’ll just quickly do renewable energy and send it all over the country and lets just get it done begs the question of how are you going to do transmission lines for that when we’ve got the transmission line project that started for you in 2007 and is still not close to being complete at this point. Sometimes 2035 seems like a long way away unless you’re doing capital projects and permitting and such, it’s actually not that far away nor realistic.

On Preparing Natural Gas When Renewables Fail: 

Lankford: …It’s interesting to me, if I look at the Southwest Power Pool that I happen to live in. …For all of us that looked at not only reliability but resiliency of it natural gas has been in this conversation. When I talk to folks in natural gas they will say it is a unique challenge that they are getting because they are approaching a tipping point for them to say, ‘natural gas is quick to be able to turn on but when you’re not asked for much for a long period of time and then suddenly you ask for a lot in a short period of time, especially in extremely cold weather event then suddenly it’s like we can’t turn it all on that fast, that much. Is there a tipping point you’re seeing for providing other fuels that are out there. For instance that were 40, 50, 60 percent renewables, and you’ve got a very small portfolio of natural gas and then the wind stops blowing and it’s a cloudy day and you suddenly don’t have those and you ask natural gas to turn on 50 percent suddenly. That’s just not realistic because what is upstream is not able to turn on that fast. Is that a realistic conversation.

Robb: I think that that is the conversation that needs to take place. Natural gas plants are the most flexible that we have in the system to accommodate the variability that we see with large amounts of variable resources, and it is real challenge for the natural gas industry to provide that kind of capacity that quickly. It’s not designed to do that, but that’s what the electric industry needs. And this is the question that I think policymakers and probably legislators are going to have tackle, which is how do we create a construct for natural gas to be able to serve these very unique needs of the electric system for which it’s not designed to do. That is going to require a fair amount of investment and some important policies.  

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