Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007: Random Observations from Cafe to Smart Grids to Pool and Spa Safety

Michael Giberson

At Common Tragedies, Rich Sweeney observed that “Pool and spa safety makes it into the energy bill,” but “renewable portfolio standards and increased oil taxes didn’t.”

According to the preamble of the proposed “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007,” it is intended (among other things) to “move the United States toward greater energy independence and security.” Admittedly, the bill’s Title XIV pool and spa safety provisions won’t do much about energy independence or security, but then I’d make the same claim about the Title I changes to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

Smart grid enthusiasts may be more interested in the proposed Title XIII, which would declare it to be the policy of the United States to support the modernization of the Nation’s electricity transmission and distribution grid, and calls for the deployment of government reports, task forces, government-sponsored research and state-level policy reviews.

Proposed Sec. 1308 of Title XIII is potentially exciting, calling for an examination of laws and regulations “affecting the siting of privately owned electric wires on and across public rights of way.” Advocates for increased use of combined heat and power projects have long found restrictions on private wires to be among the legal barriers to greater use of the technology. Shining a little light on existing law, even through means of a government report, is a small step in the right direction.

2 thoughts on “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007: Random Observations from Cafe to Smart Grids to Pool and Spa Safety”

  1. Our Congress is composed of past masters and mistresses of the art of “beginning vast programs with half-vast ideas.”

    I suspect the proposed “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007” may be far less than half-vast.

  2. Our Congress is composed of past masters and mistresses of the art of “beginning vast programs with half-vast ideas.”

    I suspect the proposed “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007” may be far less than half-vast.

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