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On Tuesday, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) released draft legislation on transmission siting, planning and cost allocation. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced similar legislation last week (see March 6, 2009 edition of the WER). While Sen. Reid’s bill strengthens FERC’s existing backstop siting authority, Sen. Bingaman’s proposal would allow project developers to go directly to FERC and bypass the state approval process altogether in certain circumstances.

On Thursday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) introduced “The Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act.” The bill would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) the authority to step in if states are blocking the development of transmission lines designated to bring more renewable energy onto the nation’s electric grid.

The White House on Thursday released a budget including revenues based on an assumption that a cap-and-trade program limiting greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions will be in place by 2012. According to the budget document, the assumed cap-and-trade program has emission targets requiring GHG emission reductions of 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.

On Wednesday, leaders from both the U.S. House of Representatives (“House”) and the U.S. Senate (“Senate”) finished reconciling all of the major provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Stimulus Bill”), estimated to cost $789 billion. While some of the energy provisions passed by the House and Senate (see January 23 and January 30, 2009 edition of WER) have changed, the majority remain intact.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works released a report this month calling for a variety of actions to be taken by the EPA in advance of comprehensive federal legislation regulating greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. The “Report on the Tools Available Under the Clean Air Act to Immediately Reduce Global Warming Pollution” presents the results of the Committee’s September 23, 2008 hearing on the extent of EPA’s current authority with respect to GHG regulation.

On Thursday, both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Ways and Means Committee separately passed their respective portions of the economic stimulus bill, committing billions of dollars to upgrading the nation’s electric grid and increasing investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.