Aspen Skiing Co. has taken what might seem at first glance to be an unlikely interest in transmission lines in the nation’s electrical grid.
SkiCo’s senior manager of sustainability and philanthropy, Hannah Berman, was part of a group that went to Capitol Hill June 20-21 to lobby for a bill designed to coax quicker development of transmission lines. Berman was part of the contingent sent by Protect Our Winters, a group of outdoor industry enthusiasts and representatives working to change climate policy.
SkiCo is a major supporter of POW. Its participation in the nonprofit group fits with its philosophy that the only way to halt global warming is through policy change.
“Yes, we will work on greening our operations but that doesn’t help with climate change, so that’s why we work with POW to harness the power of the outdoor rec industry to be a reckoning force in D.C. and at the state level on climate policy,” Berman said.
Transmission infrastructure is the entrée on POW’s plate this year. It might not be the sexiest of environmental issues, but it’s a critical one.
“To tackle climate change, we need rapid deployment of clean energy and clean energy is more diffused than normal power plants,” Berman said. “To onboard a bunch more solar, you need more transmission than you historically did if it was just one line headed to a power plant.
“So this bill is about transmission deployment in the United States and making it responsible. It created an incentive for communities to have a stake in that deployment.”
POW took its first crack, with a partner organization, at actually crafting suggested bill language. The lobbying trip in June was intended to build support for the bill and start the process to find two U.S. senators to be prime sponsors. The goal is to enlist one Democrat and one Republican for a bipartisan approach.
POW’s bill provides an incentive for local communities to support, if not outright encourages, additions of transmission lines and eliminate NIMBYism. Specifically, the bill would add .005% onto the interest in loans provided by the U.S. Department of Energy to developers of transmission lines. The bulk of the revenues, at 80%, would go to communities for the intentionally vague use of “enrichment.”
“It can be used to fix potholes, it can be used for schools, it can be used for redevelopment of parks, things like that,” Berman said.
The other 20% would be earmarked for outdoor recreation infrastructure.
Details on the initiative can be found at https://protectourwinters.org/pow-advocates-for-advancing-clean-energy-in-washington-d-c.
To exemplify the need for the fund, Berman said imagine a large solar farm built in a rural area of western Colorado. The power that gets generated needs to reach homes, businesses and schools. That’s achieved through enhanced transmission. The communities that assist transmission development receive funds when the transmission is added.
Most of the funds for transmission line development comes from loans from the energy department, according to Berman. The Biden administration’s infrastructure bill provides even more funding.
POW isn’t speculating on how quickly a bill could be passed, but Berman said the issue has plenty of traction with members of Congress. POW members met with 22 Democratic and 14 Republican senators on the June trip, as well as with officials from DOE and the Bureau of Reclamation.
“Pretty much every office (that POW met with) said transmission is the hot topic, which is amazing for nerds like sustainability departments because we love that stuff. Normally nobody else cares,” she said. “It’s getting its day in the sun.”
Now the focus is on spreading the word to POW members and the public at-large on why the transmission is so vital. POW amplifies its voice by using athletes and outdoor industry officials to spread its word. It considers its universe the “Outdoor State,” the roughly 50 million people who participate in outdoor recreation. The goal, Berman said, is for POW to be as effective at representing its constituents as the National Rifle Association has been in promoting gun rights of its members. The NRA has only 5 million members, she noted.
“There are 50 million people who engage in outdoor recreation every year,” she said. “In theory, we should be 10 times more powerful to protect the places that we love than the NRA is on its issue.”