ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Reliable energy is important to all households, and recently, some more local action was taken to help with just that.
Friday, U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced legislation to help provide stable energy rates and a reliable electric grid to states in the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA), including Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, according to a release from Moran’s office.
“The Southwestern Power Administration Fund Establishment Act would give SWPA the authority to operate on a self-funding, revolving treasury fund to help provide the administration with a long-term, reliable financing source,” the release from Moran’s office noted. “This would give SWPA more stable funding in order to lower customer rates, which can be highly volatile due to market demand and weather. Furthermore, this legislation would provide SWPA more clarity to help plan long-term infrastructure improvements and power replacement and allow SWPA to avoid drastic and unnecessary spikes in power rates charged to its wholesale customers in an extreme or multi-year regional drought situation.”
“It is critical for Kansans to have access to reliable electricity at stable rates, especially during extreme and dangerous weather,” Moran noted in the release. “This legislation will provide funding stability that will allow energy providers to make needed infrastructure improvements and prevent Kansans from suffering mass power outages.”
“Kansans – especially our farmers and ranchers – need reliable and affordable power,” Marshall noted in the release. “Consumers have suffered from high energy costs for too long, and this bill will help deliver stable and affordable power while improving our power grid infrastructure. I am proud to stand with Senators Jerry Moran and Josh Hawley in supporting this important legislation.”
Other state leaders also praised the legislation.
“Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. and its member co-ops have strongly supported the Southwestern Power Fund Establishment Act for its ability to provide appropriated dollars that will improve grid reliability while helping to stabilize rates,” Lee Tafanelli, CEO of Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., noted in the release from Moran’s office. “We thank our home state Senators Moran and Marshall for bringing forward legislation that will have a positive impact on our rural electric cooperatives and their consumer-members.”
“Federal hydropower is a reliably renewable generation resource,” Nicki Fuller, Executive Director of Southwestern Power Resources Association, noted in the release from Moran’s office. “This legislation recognizes the value of protecting that resource throughout the six-state region, making sure that these important assets are maintained. This legislation would go a long way toward ensuring grid reliability and affordably throughout the region for millions of homes, farms and small businesses. I thank Sens. Moran and Marshall for introducing this important bill that represents good business sense.”
“NRECA supports the Southwestern Power Administration Fund Establishment Act,” a statement from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association noted. “The self-financed revolving loan fund authorized by this bill would allow the Southwestern Power Administration to better manage infrastructure needs while being more responsive to market conditions and electric demands created by extreme weather events.”
“The American Public Power Association applauds the introduction of the Southwestern Power Fund Establishment Act. Since 1943, not-for-profit public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives have successfully partnered with the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA) to bring reliable hydropower produced at Army Corps dams to millions of customers in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas,” a statement from American Public Power Association noted. “While SWPA customers pay all costs of generating and transmitting the electricity in their power rates, a complicated funding process has increasingly failed to provide the financial certainty necessary to steady power rates to customers during drought and extreme weather events. The Southwestern Power Fund Establishment Act would streamline this process in a manner that would help avoid rate spikes and economic hardship for communities served by public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives while continuing to ensure that SWPA customers pay all costs associated with generating and transmitting hydropower produced at Corps dams. It is a win-win for the federal government and communities served by not-for-profit electric utilities.”
