Washington, D.C. — During the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) heard the testimonies of three experts on the impact of the federal review and permitting processes on building affordable housing and diversifying energy sources, which employ many Californians.
Schiff heard from Carl Harris, Chairman of the Board of the National Association of Home Builders, on how federal, state, and local regulations slows the construction of housing. He also questioned Brent Booker, General President, Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), on how President Donald Trump’s regulations on offshore wind farms are killing jobs for Californians and Americans. Schiff finally asked Nicole Pavia, Director, Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment, Clean Air Task Force, what improvements are needed to improve the efficiency of California’s grid (CAISO).
Watch the full conversation here.
Key Excerpts:
On California’s housing problem:
Schiff: […] In California, really the top issue is housing, the lack of housing, the lack of affordable housing. It is fundamentally a supply problem. We just don’t have anywhere near enough housing, and we can move people off the streets into shelter, but if we’re not building more housing and building it quickly, there’ll simply be new people taking their place on the streets. So my question, let me address it to you, Mr. Harris, is, what can we do to accelerate the building of housing that’s affordable? How much of the challenge in terms of the time, timeliness, or lack of timeliness in approving new projects is a federal problem, and how much of it is a state local problem? And if it’s more a state local problem, are there things that we can do to incentivize local government and agencies to get to yes quicker on new housing?
Harris: Senator, thank you very much for the question. It’s something that’s near and dear to a lot of our hearts. We believe it is a supply problem that the inventory is driving up the inflationary cost of shelter. And we think that of the 24% of the cost of a new home is related to government regulation, about I don’t know a quarter of that is probably state and local, I mean is federal. The remainder is state and local. And they’re handling the heaviest part of that. When I have the opportunity to talk to lieutenant governors and governors that are saying, “Look, we need more housing in our state.” I encourage them to look at the policies and procedures that local and state governments have in regard to housing. Have they updated their housing plan? Have they put barriers in place to keep the growth or disincentivize growth happening in their communities? And it’s the same way it could happen at the federal government. The federal government used highway dollars to get the speed limit regulated. They’ve used federal dollars to raise the drinking age. So I believe that if the federal government was to look at incentivizing these communities, either in applications for CDBG grants or any of the federal dollars that flow to municipalities, if they have consistent pro-housing, pro-growth opportunities, then I think that would incentivize them to do that, Senator.
On regulations of new energy hurting American jobs:
Schiff: […] Mr. Booker, I wanted to ask you about offshore wind. We have two big offshore wind projects, both in Humboldt and Morro Bay, and I’m concerned about the rash of cancelations we’re seeing of offshore wind projects in the last couple of years. And the new administration’s Executive Order blocking leasing for offshore wind projects. I really don’t understand the point of that. It’s going to kill a lot of jobs and reduce a lot of energy. Is this – the suspension of leasing – is this just a designed to be a gift to the oil industry? Why would we want to stop offshore wind and all the jobs and the energy that it creates?
Booker: Yeah, and I’m probably not the right guy to answer that question, but what I will say is that killing of offshore wind jobs is killing of American jobs. And this president, this administration, talked about creating American jobs, the American dream, and when we start picking winners and losers of renewables versus oil and gas versus nuclear versus hydro. The end result of that, if a political appointee, is deciding who wins and who loses at the end of the day, it’s the American worker that loses. If someone is chosen, if one industry is chosen after the other. That’s why we’ve always been all of the above. We support all of that. We support American jobs. We support American workers. And I would encourage this administration to not pick winners and losers in the energy sector and let the market dictate where it makes sense. On the East Coast and the West Coast, offshore wind has made sense. It’s been an economical, viable energy source that’s creating good American jobs.
On improving the efficiency of California’s grid:
Schiff: […] Last year, California’s grid operator, known as CAISO, stated that its interconnection queue now contains more than three times the generating capacity needed to achieve all of our state’s renewable energy goals – three times the amount needed. How do we get that transmission working? And in particular, I’m curious, a lot of projects that apply to join the grid, they end up essentially dissolving even before they get the opportunity. Is that because of the delays in access to the grid or is it because you have all these projects applying to the grid that are not necessarily financially viable or don’t have their funding. Why are those projects falling out? And what do we do to get the grid working so that when you have a new project it can come online in a time effective way?
Pavia: Yeah, I think it’s a little bit of both. There are a lot of projects that apply to the queue just to get in line, they might not be 100% ready for deployment. But I think this all stems from a process that is very long because of the lack of transmission that is available on the other side. And there is a kind of chicken and egg problem as well, where you don’t want to build a transmission line if you don’t know that there’s going to be generation on the other side of that line. You also don’t want to put new generation into the queue if you don’t think there’s going to be a transmission line built. So there is kind of this chicken and egg problem as well that I think we have to address in interconnections specifically.
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