David Thomas: “we of course are into our energy bill. One of the important components of an energy bill is the electricity section.…”

“we of course are into our energy bill. One of the important components of an energy bill is the electricity section. There are a number of things we have done. Yesterday we did some things on PUHCA and PURPA--had those eliminated. We have done some other things to make it work. The committee chairman and others were gracious enough to accept those. Today we have some other issues we want to talk about, that are very important. This amendment deals with one of those. It is called reliability. Of course, there is nothing more important than ensuring our electric transmission grid will continue to be safe and continue to be reliable; that consumers will be able to get the power they need where they need it and when they need it, the lights will go on and stay on. In fact, probably no aspect of our energy program touches more people than does electricity. The amendment we are offering today does those things. It makes electricity available and puts some reliability into it by establishing a nationwide organization which has the authority to establish and enforce reliability standards.”