The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee defeated Democratic attempts to remove electricity grid provisions from an energy bill, and instead focused on preventing a repeat of the market manipulation that occurred in California.
The House panel is writing a broad energy bill that includes incentives for oil drilling, nuclear plants, and hydrogen-powered automotives. After the bill is drafted and approved by the panel, it will go to the full House for debate.
The committee debated Republican-written proposals to open the U.S. electricty grid to greater competition. The fate of such provisions is entwined with a proposal by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to create new super-regional power grids to boost reliability and supply. Many lawmakers from the South and West from both parties see the FERC plan as an imposition on their turf and have sought to block it.
