Public Policy Priorities

The LPPC is committed to seeing that consumer dollars that pay for transmission investments are spent cost-effectively, yielding maximum environmental, economic and reliability benefits for the dollars invested.  LPPC supports the recovery of the cost of high voltage transmission in accordance with traditional cost causation principles.

The LPPC is committed to opposing legislation and regulations mandating the interconnection‐wide allocation of transmission costs for the integration of renewable resources that are costly, unnecessary or unreasonably impact the choice among resources to meet customer needs and policy goals.  The LPPC supports allocation of transmission costs to customers in proportion to economic and reliability benefits conferred by the facilities.

The LPPC is committed to pro-actively participate in the development of NERC/FERC reliability standards that are results based and that are beneficial to customers. LPPC vigorously supports the model for standards development contemplated by Section 215 of the Federal Power Act which invests in NERC primary responsibility for developing and enforcing electric reliability standards.

The LPPC is committed to supporting a primary role for NERC in addressing cyber security threats through the American National Standards Institute sanctioned standards development process.  The LPPC will work to maintain a key role for the owners, operators and users of the Bulk Power System in the development of the standards and protocols by which the grid is operated.

The LPPC is committed to attaining for public power utilities federal incentives for renewable energy projects similar to those currently available to investor-owned utilities.  Since renewable energy projects are more costly and present more financial risk than traditional sources of electricity, enabling public power to build and own its own renewable projects will bring renewable resources on line more rapidly and will pass the full benefits of incentives to electricity consumers.

The LPPC is committed to preserving access to tax-exempt financing for public power utilities.  Since governmental entities  have limited means to raise funds for their community capital needs (they can’t sell stock) they have been permitted to raise capital by issuing federally tax-exempt bonds to finance their electric generation, transmission, distribution assets and related facilities. Given the capital-intensive nature of an electric utility, tax-exempt debt is essential to serving the customers of public power systems.

The LPPC is committed to continued use of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets to cost-effectively protect their customers from wide swings in the volatile electric power and natural gas markets.  While LPPC utilities support transparency and oversight in the OTC market, utilities must be allowed to purchase natural gas and electricity to meet anticipated consumer demand with credit terms that minimize the need for collateral, allowing them to conserve capital for much needed infrastructure. The LPPC will work with Congress and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to that end.

The LPPC is committed to supporting efforts to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment.  The LPPC will strive to see that any legislation that might be adopted recognizes regional differences regarding renewable resources as well as recognizing all forms of clean energy including nuclear, energy efficiency, conservation, hydropower and clean coal. The LPPC is also committed to the principle that greenhouse gas reductions be tied to the realities of available technology.

The LPPC is committed to pro-actively participating in any major Environmental Protection Agency rulemakings relative to electric generating facilities that will have a significant impact on LPPC communities and customers.