Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined a coalition 18 states opposing the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022. The state chief legal officers say the proposed legislation is a back-door attempt to impose the failed Clean Power Plan.
In a letter to Senate Leadership, the attorneys general say the Act will “allow the restriction of the electric grid by abrogating states’ traditional authority to set their own resource and utility policies, and upset the careful balance of states and federal authority that has been a cornerstone of the Federal Power Act (FPA) for nearly a century.”
“This legislation threatens Tennessee’s continued access to affordable, reliable, resilient power,” said General Jonathan Skrmetti. “I fear that if this passes, California’s power grid problems will become our power grid problems.”
In the letter, the attorneys general argue the Act would eviscerate states’ ability to chart their own land-use and energy policies through the following provisions:
• The Act would authorize private companies to use eminent domain against state land.
• It would authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to command utilities to construct entirely new transmission facilities whenever and wherever FERC deems necessary.
• It would authorize companies to spread costs of constructing new transmission facilities onto residents of other states, requiring citizens of one state to subsidize the agenda of citizens in other states.
The following states joined the letter led by Louisiana: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.