As I mentioned in a post earlier today, I have a post up on The Hill's Congress Blog, "The Energy Choices We Need to Make". I noticed a couple of comments were already up on the post.
I knew it was probably a mistake to read the comments when the first one said "Get the communist out of the decisions Period", but I forged on anyway. Ultimately, once you get through the crazy, they actually brought up a good point.
It is a common perception that everything should happen at the state level. If Washington is broken, then it seems that you would want decisions made in your statehouse, not in broken Washington. However the energy and electricity markets are national, not local. If we leave it up to 50 states to make decisions about energy policy and regulation, that is a recipe for the status quo.
And the status quo leaves us with an energy system in decline. One where energy will get more expensive, dirtier, and we will remain dependent upon foreign countries for our energy.
I think, in order to let the private sector work best in energy markets, Congress needs to make some long-term, strategic decisions about what we want our energy system to look like in 30 years, and set up the regulatory structure that will make that happen. Once that is set up, then the markets will determine the best way to meet those goals.
Ironically, the one state that could argue 'States' Rights' - at least in the case of the electricity market - is Texas, because their electrical grid is separate from the national grid.
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