FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | December 18, 2019
Contact: Brenda Dunn (brenda@nwppa.org) | (360) 816-1453
NWPPA Executive Director Scott Corwin to Testify on Wildfire and Electric Utilities in Senate Energy Committee
Vancouver, Wash. –Northwest Public Power Association Executive Director Scott Corwin will testify on the challenges faced by electric utilities due to wildfires and measures being taken to mitigate risk of wildfire in a hearing before the full Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee tomorrow, December 19. The hearing is titled “Impacts of Wildfire on Electric Grid Reliability and Efforts to Mitigate Wildfire Risk and Increase Grid Resiliency.” Witnesses from Pacific Gas and Electric, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Texas A&M University, and Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment will also be at the hearing.
Corwin will discuss the financial risk that wildfire is posing to NWPPA’s members and the constructive measures Western utilities are implementing to reduce wildfire risk. He’ll also highlight NWPPA’s joint comments on the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed vegetation management rules (a key new law intended to make vegetation management of rights of way over federal lands timely and consistent, and to share responsibility for wildfire suppression with federal management agencies).
“Every fire season reminds us that we are out of time to address hazardous vegetation,” says Corwin. “Continued delays are not an option.”
To find out more on the hearing or to view it live, go to the Senate Energy & Natural Resources hearing website at https://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/12/full-committee-hearing-to-examine-the-impacts-of-wildfire-on-electric-grid-reliability.
About NWPPA: NWPPA is an international not-for-profit trade association representing and serving over 155 customer-owned, locally controlled utilities in the Western U.S. and Canada. The Association also serves approximately 350 associate members across the U.S. and Canada who are allied with the electric utility industry. Visit www.nwppa.org, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook for more information.