George Voinovich

The administration has made our national electricity system a national priority--as it should be.

Absolutely. And I think the other thing that you need to look at is that we are today, tomorrow, 5 years from now, 10 years from now...

There has got to be some provision that says if that kind of thing happens, that somebody is going to step in and make it happen.

So it is a governmental responsibility to make interstate commerce flow effectively, and that is not in anything before the Congress.

So you don't think the SMD rules are going to force people, as Mr. Kerr has suggested--or, no, Mr. Kerr.

Any other comments before I run?

We are so long overdue on this that it is not time for us to delay and look and try to figure out where we are going.

If there are any provisions that would handcuff the FERC from moving forward, I think it would be very unfortunate.

I think some people were saying delay 3 years or something like that, and my personal feeling is that we have waited too long.

Delay is just the kiss of death to investment.

FERC should be able to say, these lines have to be sited. We are looking at the big picture. It has to be done.

You are a separate operation? OK. I have got it.

Do you think that the provisions of the electricity title in terms of siting, dealing with the NIMBY problem and the NEPA problem, are taken care of, or do you still think more is needed?

May I ask you something? Are you part of PJM?

Thank you. I want to make clear also to you, and I again apologize to you, because of this vote schedule, your full testimony will be entered into the record.

I think that we are likely to hear some arguments in opposition. They have to do with deregulation as being a problem.

I don't think deregulation has much, if anything, to do with what is going on.

I think FERC should be supported in their endeavors.

Can FERC right now order a utility into an RTO?

So that right now, the power is in the States to get utilities to join RTOs, and this legislation would give FERC the power to order them in?

I am particularly interested in whether or not the language in the energy bill... is adequate to get the job done

I want to fix the problem, and we will talk about this investigation after they get the job done.

I want to make sure that since this new incident on August 14--that there isn't anything new that has come to the surface that ought to be reflected in that language.

I happen to believe that this should stay in the energy bill. It is long overdue that this country have an energy policy.

It is going to be public. We are going to have people in here and we are going to go over the report.