5.7. ERMUSR 03-13-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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APPA Accoiripl shmaits in new, costly and likely ineffective market programs in the West that would further erode state and local control over l: "" 1 n electricity costs; and create a top-down decision-making ' z s process that would move decisions now best made at the bra t regional level to Washington, D.C. APPA and its members, s working closely with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association,responded quickly in opposition to these d ' I1-14s '° r ' ' -6 a proposals. As part of that effort,we brought our concerns to the attention of Congress where many members of both parties also expressed their opposition and concern with the proposal through hearings in the House Natural Resources i4" • _ Committee,letters to Secretary Chu,meetings with DOE o- - staff, and a rider in the House-passed Energy and Water �.:y Development Appropriations bill for FY 2013 that would disallow use of funds to promulgate the proposals in the Despite the press's moniker of a"do-nothing" Congress, memo,among others. APPA and NRECA also implemented 2012 was another very active year on public power's issues, a comprehensive program to coordinate activities at the state given election-year politics on energy and environmental and regional levels to counter the DOE proposals, including policy and the fiscal cliff negotiations at the end of the year outreach to the media, state and local policymakers, that could have impacted our access to tax-exempt financing, and other stakeholders. Nevertheless, DOE continues to among other items delineated in more detail below. vigorously pursue many of these proposals, and APPA will Tax-exempt financing-Tax-exempt municipal bonds are continue to place a high priority on this issue. the primary tool for financing public power infrastructure, Cyber security—APPA supports legislation to enhance available to us as units of state and local government. They communication between the federal government and the have traditionally provided public power with a stable, electric utility sector and to allow for the federal government dependable and affordable source of capital. Denying or to direct utilities to act in cyber emergencies. APPA limiting our access to tax-exempt bonds would increase our supported a cyber security information-sharing bill that capital construction costs, resulting in increased electricity passed the House in 2012. In the Senate,we were initially rates in many jurisdictions. Nevertheless, elimination or hopeful that broader legislation developed by Senators Joe modification of the exemption from federal income taxes Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, covering from the interest earned on these bonds has been/continues multiple critical infrastructure sectors, would be crafted to be under active consideration as one measure to increase federal revenue. In 2012,APPA built upon activities undertaken in 2011, on our own,with the Public Finance Network, a coalition of state and local government groups, and others allies we have identified, to educate members of Congress on the importance of tax-exempt bonds, including the jobs they support. APPA's efforts have included numerous letters and visits to Capitol Hill from/by APPA and from/by our members. We have also very actively engaged our locally elected officials in this effort and they were instrumental in ensuring that tax-exempt financing was not included in the end-of-the-year tax agreement to avert the narrowly enough to draw support. However, APPA(and fiscal cliff. These efforts will continue in 2013. the entire electric sector) had to oppose the version of Federal power program --The ability for the federal power the bill that was considered on the Senate floor because it marketing administrations (PMAs) and the Tennessee would have harmed the existing cyber security regime for Valley Authority(TVA) to sell power at cost-based rates the electric sector. The bill failed to gamer enough Senate remains a top priority for APPA. In March 2012, the very support,so ultimately no legislation was signed into law. structure and core mission of the PMAs was threatened While APPA supports narrow, targeted uplic security legislation that builds on, rather than duplicates, existing in a memo issue by Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The secretary's memo to the PMA administrators directed As the regulatory debate regimes, we do not support harmful in legislation.better changes m the policies and operations of the PMAs that As the debate on this issue matures,e for are in a better would: significantly and inappropriately increase costs; position to ensure a positive outcome Eor public power. In fundamentally alter the successful partnership between 2012,APPA played a leadership role in the industry coalition the PMAs and their customers; divert PMA staff and other on this issue, which requires working with numerous House resources to activities that are inconsistent with their and Senate committees, and we will continue to play an active role as Congress revisits the issue in 2013. statutory obligations and priorities; require participation