[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 46 (Thursday, April 17, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT AND LOW INCOME FAMILIES IN ELECTRICITY 
                              DEREGULATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 17, 1997

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation that 
would create a national fund to provide matching grants to State and 
local programs promoting energy conservation, renewable energy 
resources like wind and solar power, and universal electricity service 
for low income, rural and other consumers for whom basic electricity 
service may be compromised by deregulation.
  Nationwide, it is estimated that regulated utilities spend between $6 
and $7.5 billion annually on energy conservation, renewable energy, and 
low income energy assistance programs. In the brave, new world of 
deregulated electricity markets, many of these public purposes could 
fall through the cracks. My bill provides a stable funding source to 
not only help maintain existing energy conservation, renewable energy 
and low income energy assistance programs, but to expand them around 
the Nation.
  This is not a new Federal bureaucracy. It is a simple mechanism that 
will funnel money directly to programs crafted at the State and local 
level. Its cost to the Federal Treasury will be near zero.
  The national program would be funded by a competitively neutral, non-
bypassable transmission access charge paid by all electricity 
suppliers. The charge would be set to a level sufficient to fund 
qualifying State programs each year, but would be limited to no more 
than 2 tenths-of-a-cent per kilowatt-hour. The fund would be 
administered by a joint Federal-State board with oversight from the 
Department of Energy.
  If fully utilized, the national electric systems benefits fund would 
provide between $5 and $6 billion each year in matching grants for 
locally designed energy efficiency, renewable and low income energy 
assistance programs. Electric utility industry deregulation without 
this important incentive-based program would be a disaster for the 
environment and for low income families.

                          ____________________