Today will come to order. Good morning and welcome. We find ourselves this morning with a bit of challenge on the house floor. Votes may start within five minutes. Multiple role call votes may be up to one and a half hours voting on the house floor. In the interest of time, i had the great Opening Statement written by my texas constituent, i will not give it but ask that without objection so ordered. Would you like to speak or put your statement for the record . For the record, okay, guys. Moving forward we have three witnesses here. We have mr. Chadre, you guys have five minutes. The head of furk. You have five minutes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Ranking member rush, members of the subcommittee for the opportunity to be before you today. Before i begin my marks i want to briefly reflect on the passing of senators demin chi, former chairman of the committee and hell be remembered. Id like to start by taking a moment to acknowledge all those impacted by hurricanes harvey and irma, the loss of life and widespread devastation. Its absolutely heartbreaking to see. I know i speak on behalf of those in the room when i say that are thoughts and prayers are with those effected at this difficult time. We know the road ahead will not be easy but we will be with you every step of the way. It was good to see congress act swiftly to begin providing some of the resources that are needing to those relying on it. Were ready to do our part as well. Its times like these that also remind us how important the reliability and resilience of the electric grid is in our daytoday lives. Rebuilding from these storms is going to take time but ive been inspired by the way that the brave men and women of the Utility Industry have already stepped forward to help. Crews from all over the country are assisting in this effort. In addition, firk and nirk. Firk also granted an extension on filing deadlines so people and companies could focus on whats most important. Recovery. And finally in response to the loss of refineries due to the storms, the commission issued an emergency pipeline waiver to accelerate the delivery of much needed fuel and to ep ensure the continued flow of gasoline to the northeast. Well continue to keep all those affected by hurricanes harvey and irma in our prayers as they work to rebuild their homes and lives. While this is a transformational exciting period, we must be mindful that developments not threatened the robustness or security of the electric grid. Firk supports the reliability and resiliency of the grid in several ways. Congress entrusted firk with the responsibility to enforce mandatory reliability standards in 2005, firk relies on nirk to develop and propose reliability standards. These standards include both physical and cybersecurity standards. Much of this is covered in my written testimony so in the interest of time, i am going to speed ahead and just say that reliable and resilient grid requires the development of needed Energy Infrastructure, firk supports that development through its statutory responsibility to authorize the construction of Certain Energy infrastructure such as interstate natural Gas Pipelines, liquified and nonfederal hydro Power Generation while the lack of a quorum has rendered the for much of this year. Im pleased to report that firk is now addressing the backlog and will continue to make steady progress in the coming weeks and months. Im proud to report that since the restoration of the quorum we have put out 62 orders and will continue do that. Certainly firks efforts in all of these areas covered in my written testimony will continue to involve cross sector interagency and Public Private coordination, working with our federal partners, state colleagues, Relevant Industries and other stakeholders. Firk will continue to seek ways to ensure the reliability and resiliency of the electric grid. Im continued to working with the subcommittee and i would like to reiterate my appreciation to the chair and Ranking Member for holding this critical hearing. Thank you for the allowing me the opportunity to be with you here today. Id be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. The chair now calls upon ms. Patricia hoffman. You have five minutes, maam. Chairman upton, Ranking Member rush and distinguished members of the subcommittee, i appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you electricity reliability issues in a rapidly transperforming electricity industry. The u. S. Electric sector is the in the midst of sweeping changes. I see little reason to expect that this process will slow down or we will he reach new equilibrium any time soon. The fundamental changes now is to understand this process and manage it so that our nations electric infrastructure maintains reliable, affordable and resilient. Before i discuss any further details i would like to echo the comments by chairman chattergy and that our thoughts and prayers are there for those effected. Our Organization Also provides Energy Related expertise to fema and the administration as part of our Emergency Response activities. We have been actively engaged in the response, recovery and rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. The actions that the departments have taken is in support of a whole government response to these disasters and includes deploying 26 people to federal to state Emergency Operation centers, regional and National Response coordination centers. Weve authorized up to 5. 3 Million Barrels of oil for exchange from the reserve. We have supported state and regional fuel waivers under the jurisdiction of epa and hosted calls with doe and Emergency Response personnel in the electric sector. The oil and natural gas sector and state energy offices. As secretary per ril has noted on numerous occasions, america is blessed to have the Incredible Energy systems and resources we have today. The millions of dedicated men and women who work in this electric industry and are providing response activities to restore power, to move fuels and to repair infrastructure is doing a tremendous job and should be recognized for their dedication and service. Over the last several months, doe led by my office have explored issues. We are seeking to inform policy makers of the facts and trends in the electric sector and provide a common focal point of discussion for all effected stakeholders. In addition we do research at our National Laboratories with our industry partners. We have focused on new technologies for operating, planning and monitoring and protecting the grid. The department announced on tuesday up to 50 million to National Laboratory led teams focused on resilience and cybersecurity. In order to keep my comments short, i just want to say in conclusion, secretary perry and our doe team look forward to a thoughtful conversation focused on reliability, affordability and resilience in the electric system. The implications are profound and we have one electric grid and we are more dependent on it than ever for our economic wellbeing and national security. The grid must function and it must function well in that it must meet a number of competing technical and economic requirements. And for me managing this change means we must think about the grid holistically in a single interactive set of policies, we must monitor the grids characteristics and performance. We need to develop a more systematic way of looking ahead and we must manage change with new processes and practices for collaboration that requires coordination between the federal and private sector partners. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you. The chair now calls upon mr. Jerry cally. You have five minutes, sir. Thank you vice chairman olson and Ranking Member rush and the members of the subcommittee. Thank you for conducting this hearing as we face a period of rapid change. This transition is altering our understanding of base load power and how generating resources are dispatched. As the electric Reliability Organization nirk is focused on the emerging changes presented by the nation rapidly changing mix. With strong actions im confident the Electricity Sector will continue to accommodate these changes and enhance reliability andry sillience. Even with the changes already under way the power system remains reliable and resilience. This record demonstrates the strong commitment to reliability by all stakeholders by reliability requires constant vigilance now more than ever. Let me take a moment. Each year we conduct a longterm assessment that looks at the reliability of a system ten years out. Annually we also prepare a state of reliability report that looks at the grid performance over the previous year. We conduct special assessments focused on challenges such as the integration of renewables and Energy Resources and the increased reliance on natural Gas Infrastructure. We analyze system events such as the unexpected loss of power from solar farms in california during the blue cut fire in august of 2016. Over the past six years, the 50 largest events impacting the grid were caused by Severe Weather leading nirk to focus on resilience as a priority going forward. Through our studies were able to provide risked inform recommendations to improve reliability. Next id like to turn to how the changing resource mix will effect reliability. Its highly interconnected and depends on having the right combination of resources and transmission. Its important to maintain a continuous supplies of reliability sources in the right locations on the system. As just a few examples these include, volt tage control, stability and ramping to meet changes in demands. Conventional base load units with relatively High Availability rates and on site fuel have historically provided these essential Reliability Services. When these units retire, new resources coming on to the system must replace these essential Reliability Services that are being lost. As more resources move behind the meter, its also increasingly important for the system operators to have visibility into those resources. As our power supply becomes dependent on natural gas, we must make sure its reliable. Many issues and recommendations identified by nirk are reflected in d. O. E. s staff report on electricity markets and reliability both nirk and the d. O. E. Study agree on the need to maintain central Reliability Services, promote resilience, coordinate gas electric issues and collaborate with canada and mexico on reliability. More specifically, id like to highlight several recommendations of my own. Firk, states and markets should review the economic and market factors driving base Load Generation into early retirement and provide tangible incentives for maintaining a diverse and resource mix. All new resources should have the capability to support essential Reliability Services. Markets should explicitly value and price capacity, central Reliability Services and enhanced resilience through fuel diversity. Policy makers should evaluate alternatives for insuring adequate capacity of Gas Pipelines and storage to meet electricity production needs during extreme conditions and ensure that Gas Infrastructure is as secure from cyber and physical security threats as the grid that it supplies. Markets should require all resources including demand response, ensure those resources will perform in both normal and extreme conditions and finally, policy makers should seek alternatives to streamline siting and permitting of transmission. To address the challenges and benefits of more diverse resource mix, policy makers must understand and plan for the risks of our rapidly changing resource fleet. I appreciate the opportunity to share our thoughts and expertise with you here today. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Calendary. The chair now calls upon the Ranking Member of the committee mr. Pa loan for five minutes. Ill just submit my statement for the record because my understanding is there are going to be votes and ill just submit it for the record. Ill ask unanimous consent. Without objection . So ordered. Thank you all for your testimony. Well begin the question answer portion of this hearing. Ill begin with the questioning and recognize myself for five minutes. Hurricane harvey hit my home state twice. But we never lost power in my home in sugarland. Some people are still without power in texas. A lot of people in florida dont have power because of Hurricane Irma. Without power theres much greater damage. Mold, even deaths as we saw in florida. My first question is for you mrs. Hoffman. I know that d. O. E. Has been very busy assisting with Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma recovery efforts. We applaud that. But can you talk a second about the programs d. O. E. Has in its place not only to recover but to also prepare for storm events in the future. Yes, vice chairman. Thank you very much for the question. The department has been actively engaged with utilities throughout r d program to look at advance technologies that weve helped support the industry, test out on the grid such as automated switching, rerouting of power. The ability for utilities to do outage management. To really take a look at and be proactive in the response characteristics for identifying where the outages are, if you remember customers usually have to call the utility to let them know their power is out. Now the utilities have been able to automate a lot of those systems. In addition weve been working with the states and the regions to really exercise and understand the different each hurricane is different, the damage is significant and weve been helping the states preparing for this. Thank you. What is been the role of the escc, electricity subsector coordinating counsel during hurricane preparations. It has had a significant role. It is the focal point of coordination between the federal government and ceos, the leaders in the industry. This allows for continuity of message and activities that were all on the same page on what the priorities are and what the activities and the needs are by industry to the highest level of the federal government as well as industry in supporting a coordinated but most importantly Effective Restoration policy. Back home the people say its working very well. Glad to hear its working well on your side. Final question, a few months ago we pass aid bill this committee improve state energy planning. How does it help a state deal with extreme weather events like harvey, irma and more hurrica s hurricanes . So, Energy Insurance planning is an important activities that the states undertake to really take a hard look at scenarios of potential events that could impact their state, but also look at what, how this affects the Energy Resources, so it allows us to look at contingency and thinking about how to build in resilience in partnership with the states. In order to have a reliable system, we must protect our grid from cybersecurity threats. I understand you participate in the grid x exercises. How do these types of exercises make the system more reliable and what else are you doing in terms of cybersecurity . Thank you for the question, vice chairman. Commission and i myself take cybersecurity very seriously. We are focused on ensuring riblty in the face of some of the challenges we have. We have an office of Energy Infrastructure security that is is trying to stay ahead. Theres no question that threats, whether from headquarters or Cyber Attacks or of the yut most concern to the commission and i will continue to work with you all and my colleagues to ensure the safety of our grid. Trz. Thank you. In your frofsal opinion, do you anticipate that Climate Change in the Energy Infrastructure more frequently occur i occurring in hurricanes and natural disasters, fires and flood. Each one of you. Its important as we confront these storms we ensure that as our grid transforms for the futu future, we can bounce back from these ooempbts and have reliable grid. When the power goes out, people really suffer. I was on a call with secretary perry and he talked about the fact that after couple of days, youre hot, tired and wet and if you dont have power, you start to get upset. Its important in response to these challenge, we have a reliable and resilient grid. As we are in this period, we ensure the reliability our country has enjoyed can be maintained. I would echo the chairmans comments. That i believe its the duty and responsibility of the electric industry to be forward leaning and to think about different scenarios and events that will happen. And about how to build in resilient. What can we do to our infrastructure to continue to support an Effective Restoration process to get iting the lightsn as quickly as possible. So understanding Climate Change is outside of expertise, but we see in recent years in my time as eight years a ceo, it seems we are seeing an increase this the magnitude and severity of events, flooding and storms its something as the other two mentioned, i think we have to think about in the design of our systems and preparations to think about what weve seen. Do each of you, do you feel as though theres a sense of urgency thats apparent in the comments or in the administration, republican or democrat. Is there a sense of urgency about reliability in Severe Weather challenges . I laid out in my opening remarks some of the steps that the federal Energy Regulatory commission took immediately to respond to the devastation that was wrought by hurricanes harvey and irma and i can say that we most certainly view the reliability and resilience of our grid with the utmost sense of urgency. Hurricanes impacting the mainland of the united states, there is definitely a sense of urgency. Secretary perry, former governor of texas, recognizes the devastation to life and the Economic Development and human safety, so it is definitely forefront on our radar. I sense that theres been a strong focus on resilience of the grid through both the most recent administrations and working hard were working hard on that. An example of the investment and the reason is, in my opening remarks i mentioned the 50 most significant events weve seen in the u. S. In the last five years are all weather related. So it says we can invest more in hardening and protecting our system. Florida power and light in irma had recently invested 3 billion on hardening using concrete poles, steel poles, elevating substations and making the equipment that was hardened performed significantly better than the equipment that had not been hardened yet, so it was a good demonstration. I have just a short period of time left. I want to ask, according to the Cyber Security firm, theres been an uptick in activity by a group code name dragonfly 20 im sorry, dragonfly 2. 0 within our Domestic Energy network. Are ferc and nerc monitoring this activity, and are you both confident that you have the tools to address this issue in order to prevent this group from sabotaging our electric infrastructure . Thank you for the question, congressman. We are aware of the semantics report and coordinating closely with other federal agencies as well as the nerc i sac and industry to assess and address this matter as appropriate. If it would be helpful to members of the subcommittee, we could seek to coordinate to provide this information in a nonpublic setting. Dragonfly has been around for three or four years. Weve been aware of it. This new reincarnation of dragonfly 2 is recent and it has characteristics that would make it operative within control systems within substations and so on. It is of interest. The instances that weve seen have not gotten into those systems. They were picked up through traffic between utility systems and information going offshore. So it has not done any harm. Its not infiltrated the systems yet but its there and its active. Yield back, mr. Chairman. The chair calls upon the gentleman from texas, the vice chairman joe barton. Members, please sit here until the fiveminute time. Please, please, please. We have so many people, questions, were running out of time. Chairman barton, youre up. Because what you just said, mr. Chairman, im going to ask one question and then ill yield to anybody on my side. Many, many states are adopting renewable portfolio standards and some of them are fairly aggressive. They want to have at least 50 and there may be a few states that are above that, their Electricity Generation with renewables. My question, is it possible to meet the same reliability standards if you go to a Generation System that is predominantly renewable . I think from what were seeing its technically feasible but there are a lot of reliability challenges. I gave an example that a transmission line tripped when 120 omega watts of solar panel saw that they thought it was the system collapsing so they shut down at the worst time. There has to be coordination. Wind and solar do not inherently come with the controls to provide frequency response, voltage response. They just want to put out mega watts, power. Technically weve been working with the vendors to show them some of those weaknesses and things that need to be done. In the short term the answer is no, its not possible. But in the long term with some Battery Research and other things it is perhaps possible. I think the technology is there today. It just requires a lot of coordination. I would yield. Thank you, joe. On the same line, we had the qualifying facilities hearing last week or two weeks ago. Just a couple questions that kind of segue way right into what joe was saying. One is some of the electricity markets talked about how there may be a need to an opportunity to curtail the qs to make sure they continue to keep the reliability of grid. Do you have any comments on that . I want to be careful, congressman, as we have i dont want you to be careful. As you know, Congress Enact perpa in 1978, i think. We have heard from numerous stakeholders that theres an interest in reviewing potential reforms. Significant changes to perpa would require congressional action. There are steps that ferc can take with respect to perpa implementation on minor issues and we held a Technical Conference on this. But i think let me go with, do you understand that theres a concern that maybe some of these projects are located for the benefit of the investors over the grid reliability. Its certainly something we are looking at. The last debate, hopefully you listened or saw part of the testimony where some of these qualifying facilities are able to break down the parcels to kind of game the system. Is that part of your review and discussion . It absolutely is and it is something that we would review to see whether that is something that the commission could handle within its purview, potentially not require a statutory change from congress. Great, thank you. I yield back. Id be happy to yield to any other member. If not, mr. Chairman, i yield back to you. The chair calls upon the Ranking Member of the full committee, mr. Pallone from new jersey for five minutes. Mr. Chairman, id like to yield my time to the gentle woman from florida. I thank the Ranking Member very much. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. I want to thank the utility workers all across the country who have flooded into florida and i know they did into texas to help get the power back on after millions and millions of my neighbors in florida lost power. So my hats off to them on behalf of the citizens of the state of florida. They still have some work to do, but theyre making good progress. But i think these extreme weather events, these two hurricanes in addition to the other events we have seen just in the past few years require a modern dramatic response to what is happening with the cost of the changing climate. These disasters are very expensive, and it is time to make a dramatic investment in a modern grid, something that is more resilient, something that serves the need of our citizens in a better way. We have the brightest minds here in america and we need to put them to work and we need to put the technology to work, whether thats burying lines that we havent invested in before, greater distributed energy grid, building in the renewables over time. I agree theyre not the answer in the short term but in the long term these distributed grids, building in Renewable Energy is going to help us reduce the cost of the changing climate. We have to do more on demand management. That has been a battle in the past and there are some challenges but we have got to do this. The Business Models in many states simply do not match the challenges ahead of us. I hear that the department of energy wants to be proactive on this but i dont know how we do that when weve seen such tremendous proposed cuts from the Trump Administration in resilience, in research. We have got to rethink that and im calling on all of my colleagues who understand the challenges ahead. We cant simply cut our way and think were going to be able to address these costs and these challenges ahead. Ms. Hoffman, certainly these cuts, proposed cuts to research and development and resiliency are going to put us further behind. How do we keep up in an era where we need to be investing more in a modern grid to ensure we dont have the Power Outages and were addressing the cost of the changing climate . Thank you very much for the question. The administration is focused and its fy18 budget on early stage research. We really are concentrating on maximizing the effectiveness of work at the department of energy. We did provide a budget to congress for fy18. I know its under deliberations for the house and senate. And we look forward to what congress provides back for what the department will implement as part of our fy18 appropriations. Youre right, its back on the congress in a lot of ways and i hope that theyre listening and understand the huge cost if we do not address this. Look at what were facing already in emergency aid packages, flood insurance, rising property insurance, property taxes because local governments have to raise taxes for their infrastructure and everything theyre doing and just the loss of life. My message on the heels of these disasters is lets do more working together. Everyone, the Utility Industry, the scientists we have out there and take this on. This is a real call to action, and i thank i share mr. Rushs sense of urgency as he put it. Thank you, and i yield back. The chair now calls upon the gentleman from north dakota, mr. Kramer, for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Vice chairman, and thank you, witnesses, for your service and for being with us today. Im going to ask the chairman first, as the policy leaders here we need to respond to establish a path for base Load Generation, especially north dakota is a big coal producing state. Its low cost, its efficient. And i worry about the early shutdown, the forced shutdown, frankly, of base Load Generation, especially with plants that have useful life yet in them. It really doesnt do anything in my view to protect Americas Future Energy position while also increasing the cost of electricity for consumers. Of course, again, speaking to my state, most of these plants belong to integrated utilities which i think has a special concern about this where the consumers pay for the facilities, whether theyre running or not running. I think this gets lost a lot of times. Can you elaborate from a ferc perspective a little bit on any strategies that you can deploy that would help adequately compensate base Load Generation . Thank you for the question, senator sorry, freudian slip. It happens a lot lately. Has a nice ring to it. Thank you for the question. Obviously being from kentucky and having grown up in kentucky i have seen first hand the importance of coal fire generation and what coal fire generation means for the delivery of not just affordable but reliable electricity. Certainly growing up seeing that, i have an appreciation for the role that coal fire generation plays in our marketplace. In terms of what strategies or path forward, the commission is fuel neutral and we will look to ensure that as our grid undergoes this transformation that we ensure that we evaluate the attributes of fuel sources to see what values they provide and see what if theres a demonstrated need for reliability, whether or not those things can be compensated. I believe that the democratic nominee for the vacancy on the commission testified to this last week and he said that while currently per the doe report he believed that there was not threats to reliability, even he admitted that we had to closely monitor this and watch this, and i think id echo those remarks. Were going to closely watch and monitor whether, in fact, transitions in the grid do lead to vulnerabilities and threats to reliability and whether or not we would need to take steps to make sure that need is met. Along the same lines, a lot of states have taken steps to try to work around Market Solutions to preserve these plants and their benefits. But in most cases, these efforts have been challenged, i didnt understandably. How can we deal with this, how should we deal with this, or is this going to be litigation or regulation by litigation. Is there a way to deal with the states . Certainly it is within the states purview and i believe in states rights and it is their prerogative to determine their sources of generation and their generation mix. When it affects interstate commerce and potential it does have threats to reliability, i think ferc has the authority to weigh in there. I think it will be something that we will look at closely and carefully and build a record, adhere to the science and engineering and technology of the grid and make those careful determinations. Thank you, and congratulations by the way. In my remaining minute, ms. Hoffman, i want to maybe talk about the role of coal going forward, again, especially with the new technologies, the r and d thats being developed for cleaner coal, fewer emissions, Carbon Capture sequestration, utilization, all of those technologies that are very promising but at this point not quite to marketability, while at the same time i guess my question is, how can doe both through r and d and advocacy find ways to build that bridge, i call it a bridge but using the existing tools or expanding on them, especially considering we have tax reform coming up. Do you see any way for doe and congress to work to build a bridge to that ultimate future of cleaner coal . Congressman, i would love to continue to work with you on exploring additional ideas through our research program. Well continue to invest in advancements in coal technology, utilization of coal looking at job growth and looking at opportunities to continue to support the coal industry. Other things that wed like to be able to recognize is the value the coal brings as the study brought out and can it be compensated for the services it provides, frequency support, frequency response, fuel diversity. Thank you, and good report. I appreciate it. Thanks, all of you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The gentleman yields back. The chair calls upon the gentleman from california, mr. Mcnerny. North dakota has the biggest resource of any state in the country so dont discount alternative energy in north dakota. I want to followup on ms. Castor. Yes, we need resilience in our electric grid. Cyber issues, physical threats, other drivers and as cochair of the bipartisan grid innovation caucus, our mission is to move forward in that to get the congress excited about grid innovation and resiliency. So lets keep that line of communication open. Ms. Hoffman, i want to start with a question about the disaster. When disasters strike like the harks that we just saw, there are utilities sharing resources, but what i want to know, are there barriers to the sharing of resources between utilities that we could address here . Thank you, congressman, for the question. I think the biggest barrier is allowing the resources to get to the location of where it needs to be as quickly as possible. Physical barriers . Physical movement. Other barriers and other things that we are trying to do is accelerate the assessment time period which goes down to information sharing as part of the Public Private partnership so that we understand exactly what the damage is so we can effectively move resources to respond. Thank you. Again ms. Hoffman, Cyber Attacks are becoming greater threats, including statesponsored attacks such as the potential connection between dragonfly and russia on attacks on our electric grid. So we must continue to focus on Cyber Security but build our grid cyber resiliency. In addition to fercs order 829 related to supply Chain Management, are there additional steps that doe is or should be taking with regard to supply Chain Management of the system . Congressman, absolutely. It is one of the areas that we all should be focusing on is supply Chain Management. What the department is doing is partnering with the supply chain sector that supports the electric industry, helping them look at vulnerabilities, solutions and ways to get ahead of the game and find ways to monitor any intrusions that come onto the system and also look for abnormal behaviors. Were looking at legislation that might enhance your capabilities in that regard. Also, there are several traditional reliability and resiliency framework tools including kd, say d and safe e if you know what those are and the cost estimate calculator. Is there room for improvement on those tools . Should they be upgraded regularly . Yes, congressman, we should always take a look at new tools and capabilities to advance the utilization. It will help us in the long term define what does resiliency mean and what is the Cost Effective investments that we should focus on. So all those tools are valuable in establishing a baseline but also helping identify priorities. In the interest of courtesy, ill yield back but im going to submit questions for the record. I thank my friend. The chair now calls upon the gentleman from the commonwealth of virginia, mr. Griffith, for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. In the interest of time i will submit some questions that i had for the record that i had and ill try to abbreviated my questions as much as i can. Chairman, you have said that the existing coal and Nuclear Fleet need to be properly compensated to recognize the value they provide the system. Regardless if one agrees or not, it is clear that some states do agree and are taking action within the jurisdiction to compensate generations resources. Given the current backlog of issues at ferc, how high of a priority do you see ferc placing on the issue of proper compensation in wholesale markets, and as a part of that let me say because of time i would love to get an extended answer, but for purposes of todays hearing so that folks at home know, high, medium or low . We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Id say high. I appreciate that very much. The recently released staff report found that the uncertainty surrounding new source review requirements hads led to a significant lack of investment in efficiency upgrades. I look to the question i just asked where we acknowledged that coal and Nuclear Fleets are important for grid reliability across the country, so we have the lack of investment in plant and efficiency upgrades and the new program has resulted in the cancelation of projects which would maintain and improve reliability safety and efficiency of energy capacity. Many times thats coal but other things as well. I authored two bills to streamline the new source review program. Can you provide a brief overview, looking at another date for a longer answer perhaps, but can you provide what doe plans have that there are to ensure this permitting program does not further impact grid reliability. I am working on the legislative end, what are you doing on the administrative end . We are working diligently to streamline the review and permitting process thats in the portfolio or jurisdiction of the department of energy. We are looking at on the transmission side, preapplication process. I will be glad to have an indepth conversation on the list of activities were working on. I appreciate that anything you can provide to our office. I do apologize that, because of hurricanes earlier in the week and now our compressed voting schedule today, that i cant get a lengthier answer. Mr. Chairman, those being the two most vital of my questions, i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Seeing no further members wishing to ask questions, i would like to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. And i want to personally apologize for exposing you all to a good Old Fashioned texas goatrope because of the floor votes. I appreciate your patience. Pursuant to Committee Rules i remind members that they have ten Business Days to submit additional questions for the record. Ask that witnesses submit their response within ten Business Days upon receipt of those questions. Without objection, the subcommittee is adjourned. [ gavel ] do you agree that 50 doesnt pose a caught the back and forth between him and chairman barton. They seem to have some disagreement about that. I want more details. He said more coordination is needed. I would want to talk to him further about it. I dont want to speak to chairman chatterjee. You talked about the backlog. There hasnt been any orders. How are you guys measuring, you know, the working down of the backlog . I actually want to commend the commissioner for the work she did as acting chair. People have been saying and i quite frankly was one of them, hey, we need to restore the quorum, get it further working. What i saw from the moment i walked in the door that ferc has been working the whole time. I think working with mr. Powellson and commissioner lafleur we have a great strategy in place working through these orders. We got 62 out to date. Should have a number out coming. The manner in which we prioritize them, some by statutory needs. Needs basis. Its a smart, appropriate strategy. We have the open meeting coming up next week. Well do a considerable amount of business there. I am pretty confident, because of the great work that was done we need permitting reform and infrastructure. And mission will play an important with they long with folks throughout the executive and legislative branches througho throughout. Very impressed with going back to what is done. New folks coming into the commission that need to get in and up to speed on the work the commission has done to date and move forward on it. I am not going to speak now or without consulting with my colleagues on what steps we might take moving forward or what the next steps need to be. Its something thats high priority at the commission. Chairman, todays vote was postponed. Do you have concerns about that . I think it was a logistical issue. My understanding is that there were competing committee meetings. The Intel Committee and there are a lot of crossover members. I am not reading anything into that whatsoever. I am not concerned. I think it was a scheduling issue. Speaking of next weeks first meeting, what are your priorities . Anything you could share ahead of the meeting . We put out our Sunshine Notice last night. It was pretty straightforward. Im looking forward to it. Doing a press conference like this. President trump tan a rally for senator strange who was appointed at the senate seat of Jeff Sessions and now running in a special election. Thats live at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on our companion network, cspan. And now, the president s speech, well show who was also running. He was joined in his rally by former alaska governor, sao paulo. Andrew eisenberg on the moouflt in the 1970s. What i want to argue here is that the noble savage environmentalist was a kind of product that was sold to American Consumers just like big macs or cars. Then john penny and heather penny a former d. C. Air National Guard f16 pilot talk about their experiences during 9 11. We take off and head northeast into a serene and peaceful and silent sky. Theres only one airport. We head out to northwest and never find anything. We were not heroes that day. The passengers on flight 93 were the heroes. On sunday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on american artie b facts, during Harriet Tubman visitors syndrome. We think she got temporal lobe epilepsy, which allowed her to have a direct connection to god. She heard voices, had very vivid dreams. The it was terrible on the physical side, but amazing for her faith. At p 00, our histories on photojournalists continues with eric draper. That image that shows dan bartlett, the communications director, pointing to the tv, that was a first time we started seeing the second target getting hit. The Senate Finance committee Holding Hearing monday on the latest Republican Health care plan to repeal liyndsie grahm of South Carolina and bill cassidy would replace subsidies for Health Insurance with block grants to the states. Senators graham and cassidy are testifying at the hearing monday. Well have live coverage starting at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2. Cspan was created as a Public Service by and is brought to you by your local provider. John lewis, Maxine Waters an other members spoke at this years konz frens of the congressional black caucus. Well hear about voting rights, criminal justice reform. Good morning, my brothers and sisters. Good morning, my brothers and