The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers – United States of America IEEE-USA Applauds Efforts
to WASHINGTON (23 May 2001) – As the current situation in California so clearly illustrates, the United States needs a comprehensive national energy policy designed to ensure an adequate, reliable, economical and environmentally acceptable supply of energy, particularly electrical energy, to meet both current and future energy challenges. Our electric power systems must be planned, designed and operated based upon sound engineering principles, and must be based on sound analyses of future needs. "It is critical not to take our national energy supply or our electric power system for granted," IEEE-USA President Ned Sauthoff said. "We must make the investments and adopt the policies needed today to ensure reliable and affordable electric power is available in the future." For these reasons, IEEE-USA applauds the efforts of President George W. Bush and members of both parties in Congress to create a national consensus on energy policy. IEEE-USA believes strongly that a comprehensive national energy strategy should support a broad and balanced range of electric generation and conservation options, and that our nation must invest in new technologies needed to satisfy future energy demand. This means policies that promote energy efficiency, cleaner conversion fossil fuels, commercialization of renewable energy resources, nuclear power and advanced technologies such as fusion and hydrogen, for the future. The deregulation of the electric utility industry has posed fundamental challenges to the reliability of the electric power system. The marketplace, ideally, will encourage the development of new, efficient generation. However, the capacity, control and operation of the transmission system are inadequate for supporting a fully competitive market. Developing better ways to operate transmission systems is the major technological challenge of restructuring. New and improved transmission, communication, control, and metering technologies and systems need to be developed for the new structure of the electrical system to succeed. Congress and the Bush Administration should enact legislation creating an impartial, self-managing electric reliability organization with the authority to develop new national reliability rules and practices that all organizations and companies participating in the electric power marketplace must meet. The Administration should also immediately sponsor a substantial program to assess recent experience in the functioning of electric power markets and analyze the effect of various market designs on the cost of electricity and system reliability. Sound energy policy requires more than a political balancing of popular interests. Because of the technological complexity of our national energy system, policy must also be consistent with sound technical and economic analyses prepared by professionals who are fully qualified in their respective disciplines. IEEE members stand ready to provide our technical expertise as a resource to assist the President and Congress in this important task. IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE created in 1973 to promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 230,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society. Through its members, the IEEE is a leading authority on areas ranging from aerospace, computers and telecommunications to biomedicine, electric power and consumer electronics. For more information, visit us online at http://www.ieeeusa.org. Distribution:
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