Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator for his support of this legislation and for his inquiry about Section 6 of the Act. Streamlining the licensing process for ``closed-loop pumped storage'' projects will encourage development of new and important sources of renewable energy that will help balance the country's energy resources and provide critical support to the Nation's power grid. Section 6 of the bill directs FERC to develop criteria for identifying projects featuring ``closed loop pumped storage'' that would be appropriate for licensing within a 2-year process. This term was used in the bill to generally describe pumped storage projects that have a low impact on the various resources considered by FERC during the licensing process such as environmental, recreational, and navigation interests. For example, pumped storage projects that are removed from major streams are likely to have fewer significant resource impacts and issues to be addressed and resolved, which makes them appropriate for the 2-year licensing process. Accordingly, the types of pumped storage projects considered ``closed loop'' and, therefore, eligible for FERC's expedited licensing process under this bill, would include projects where the upper and lower reservoirs do not impound or directly withdraw water from a navigable stream and projects that are not continuously connected to a naturally-flowing water feature.…”