[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 335]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WIND TRANSMISSION FUNDING

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I rise to discuss funding for a wind 
transmission study that was included in the fiscal year 2005 Omnibus 
Appropriations bill signed into law last December. As a member of the 
Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, I appreciated the 
efforts of Senators Domenici and Reid, the chairman and the ranking 
member of our subcommittee, to include $500,000 for the Western Area 
Power Administration, WAPA, to continue its work on the placement of 
additional wind capacity in the Dakotas. They have generously provided 
funding for similar work for the past two years, and I am glad these 
efforts will be continued during this coming fiscal year.
  North Dakota is the ``Saudi Arabia'' of wind. The Department of 
Energy has long identified North Dakota as having the greatest wind 
energy resource and potential for wind generation development in the 
lower 48 States. During my time in the Senate, I have been pushing hard 
on a number of fronts to develop our wind energy resources. For 
example, I have been a strong supporter of the Renewable Portfolio 
Standard, RPS, which requires utilities to produce 10 percent of their 
electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. In addition, I 
believe the Federal Government should be a leader in this area and 
develop a policy of purchasing electricity from renewable energy 
sources.
  Last February, I hosted the Fifth Annual Wind Energy Conference with 
the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North 
Dakota to further promote this clean and limitless energy resource. 
Wind energy stakeholders from around the Nation attended this 
successful event, which attracted 436 people from 30 States and three 
Canadian provinces. Last year, the conference included a second day of 
events because of the overwhelming interest in wind energy. As a result 
of the wind energy industry's growth, North Dakota's skyline and 
economic future are forever changing and progressing forward. We will 
be doing another conference in February 2005, which more broadly 
embraces renewable energy in the Upper Midwest.
  Despite my continued efforts to increase the use of wind as an energy 
source, North Dakota faces many transmission challenges in moving wind 
energy to other parts of the country. I have held field hearings in 
North Dakota on these issues and have also supported the development of 
new transmission technologies. While the Senate has wisely included 
funding for the last several years for WAPA to make some progress on 
these transmission problems, the fact remains that more needs to be 
done. WAPA and others have done a number of general studies on this 
issue and I think the next steps are clear. WAPA should use the funding 
earmarked in FY2005 for an Environmental Impact Study, EIS, that would 
allow transmission expansion for wind generation to be placed in North 
and South Dakota and should use the remaining funds to support specific 
demonstration projects in the region.
  With respect to site-specific projects to support wind development 
for future electric generation, I believe that WAPA should first 
develop parameters for determining what constitutes a bona fide wind 
project. In doing this, WAPA should ensure that projects meet the 
following requirements: a minimum period of at least one year; minimum 
anemometer height of at least 40 meters; multiple monitoring points 
allowing calculation of wind shear; a defined system interconnection 
point and wind right easements adequate for the proposed project. To 
make these limited funds stretch farther, I would expect any proposed 
project to include a 50-50 cost share provision. It is my hope that 
WAPA will be able to support projects that will accurately determine 
the transmission requirements and related costs associated with the 
installation of specific wind and coal generation projects.
  Following this guidance, it is my expectation that WAPA will use this 
funding to make real progress on these transmission problems in the 
next fiscal year, and provide wider benefits to the large region of the 
U.S. served by WAPA. After all, WAPA was created to market hydropower, 
a renewable energy resource. Wind is the next step.

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