Lower electricity costs: Kilili calls for Interior energy action teams

Press Release

Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan grilled Interior Department officials today on their failure to establish energy action teams to help reduce the cost of electricity in the insular areas. Noting that his constituents in the Marianas pay three times as much for power as officials in Washington, Kilili insisted that Interior follow the requirements of U.S. Public Law 113-235 and put teams in place with engineering and financing skills to help reduced the use of costly fossil fuels and increase energy efficiency.

The questioning came during the Natural Resources Committee's review of President Trump's fiscal year 2020 budget for the Interior Department. The President wants to cut overall funding for the insular areas by $15 million and cut funding to reduce energy costs from $5 million to just $2.8 million, spread across all the insular areas.

Enacted in 2014, Public Law 113-235 required the Interior Department to create energy action plans for each insular area with financing and engineering laid out on a specific timeline -- and create expert teams to help implement the plans. The law also required the Interior Department to report annually to Congress on whether the benchmarks in the plans were being met.

"Do you know how many of those reports Congress has received?" Congressman Kilili asked Interior officials. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Cameron, representing the Department said he did not know.

"None," Kilili informed him.

"And do you know how much the cost of electricity has changed in the Marianas over the last five years during which the Interior Department was required by law to be helping us? Not much. And only because the cost of oil dropped from $100 in 2014 to around $60 today."

In the past the Interior Department has claimed that a strategic plan it developed for the Marianas in 2013 fulfills the requirements of Public Law 113-235. That plan laid out three scenarios: no change, a 20 percent reduction in fossil fuels, or a 53 percent reduction.

"Do you know which scenario came to pass?" Kilili asked Cameron. "No change.

"Because a plan with "multiple scenarios' is not a plan. A plan without a schedule of implementation is not a plan. A plan without prioritizing specific projects is not a plan. A plan without financing option is not a plan."

Sablan is working with congressional appropriators this year to force Interior to comply with the law and get aggressive about cutting energy costs for families in the Marianas.

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