Statement: October 15, 2009

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Statement of Chairman Jon Wellinghoff on The Strategic Plan

"Our mission is to assist consumers in obtaining reliable, efficient, and sustainable energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means. We can accomplish this mission by pursuing two goals that are familiar to everyone in the energy industry. First, we must ensure that rates and terms of service are just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory. Second, we must ensure the development of safe, reliable, and efficient energy infrastructure that serves the public interest.

While the goals are familiar, the context in which we pursue them is changing with our Nation's energy challenges. For example, creating market opportunities that will help to unlock the still largely untapped potential of renewable energy resources and demand resources must be part of our strategy to move toward energy independence and to confront climate change.

The Strategic Plan also reflects our continued commitment to developing needed energy infrastructure; overseeing reliability standards; and effectively enforcing both market and reliability rules.

Thus the Commission's new Strategic Plan reinforces our commitment to our core goals while encouraging the development of a wide range of tools that will help to achieve them. Thus, among other performance goals, the Commission will build on our efforts to: identify and eliminate barriers to participation by demand resources in organized wholesale electric markets; ensure that all resources capable of providing ancillary services have that opportunity; explore market reforms that will allow renewable resources to compete fairly; support open and transparent transmission planning processes; promote the use of cost-effective advanced technologies such as smart grid advancements; and promote efficient design and operation of natural gas facilities.

I commend the many members of the Commission's Staff who have worked hard in developing the Strategic Plan. I look forward to working with staff and my colleagues on implementing the FERC Strategic Plan."

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