Bureaucracy_and_You

Bureaucracy and You Axia College of University of Phoenix Bureaucracy and You 1 Five ways that the Federal Bureaucracy regulates my life is the FDA inspects and passes all the food and drink I consume everyday, the FERC regulates the electricity I use in my home everyday, the EPA regulates the gasoline that I burn in my car everyday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regulates the safety of the toys my child plays with everyday, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) regulates and protects the money I deposit in my checking account everyday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission affects our daily life on an everyday basis, one regulated activity that surprised me the most is that they license and inspects private, municipal, and state hydroelectricity projects. I can understand the fact that they oversee municipal and state projects but what surprised me most is the fact that they oversee private projects also. What surprised me the least is that the FERC does not issue State water quality certificates, because FERC does not regulate water quality, however it does regulate hydroelectricity projects which is in combination of electricity and water, water quality has no effect in generating hydroelectricity. The FERC was first established in 1920, but at that time it was called the Federal Power Commission (FPC), FPC could only hire an Executive Secretary so therefore all other personnel was borrowed from the Secretary of War, Interior, and Agriculture. In 1928 Congress voted to give the FPC the funds to permanently hire their borrowed staff. Two years later, the Federal Power Act established a five- member, bipartisan commission to run FPC. (www.ferc.gov/students/whatisferc/history.htm) Bureaucracy and You 2 Due to the passage of new acts and court decisions the mission of the FPC expanded, the Federal Power Act of 1935 and the Natural Gas Act of 1938 allowed the FPC to regulate the sale and transportation of electricity and natural gas. In 1940, amendments to the Natural Gas Act enabled FPC to certify and regulate natural gas facilities. A result of FPC’s jurisdictions, FPC and the nation faced an energy crisis with backlogs of applications for Natural Gas Permits, while there were chronic brownouts in the 1960’s and the OPEC embargo in the 1970’s, due to all of this reorganization of FPC was called for. In 1977 Congress reorganized the FPC as FERC and the responsibilities of the commission continued to expand, in 1978 the Natural Energy Act unified intrastate and interstate gas markets. In the late 1970’s FERC provided for gradual deregulation for instance, in 1985 FERC Order 436 required that natural gas pipelines provide open access to transportation services, enabling consumers to negotiate prices directly with producers and contract separately for transportation. (www.ferc.gov/students/whatisferc/history.htm) FERC’s main job is to regulate energy to be sure there is always plenty of energy to go around for everyone. FERC plays a very large important role in our lives daily, no matter where you live you constantly see things that are being regulated by FERC, whether it be heating or cooling your home, blow drying your hair, or switching on your computer system, the energy used to do these things are regulated by the FERC. Bureaucracy and You 3 The Energy Policy Act was signed into law on August 8, 2005, that is the latest implemented rule, however every 180 days after the Energy Policy Act was signed into law the FERC must report to Congress on progress being made in licensing and constructing the Alaskan natural gas pipeline. On September 21, 2009 FERC approved an agreement that settles manipulation claims against Energy Transfer Partners, LP. Under the agreement ETP agrees to pay $30 million to settle allegations that it manipulated physical wholesale natural gas prices at Houston Ship Channel on specific dates from 2003 through 2005. One thing I find interesting about this agency is what it regulates and how it affects all of our lives on a daily basis, without the FERC what kind of shape would our energy resources be in today' We experienced an energy crisis in the 1960’s and 1970’s until everything was reorganized. We rely on energy for everything from heating and cooling, to cooking and leisure activities, our world revolves around energy. Another thing that is interesting about FERC is the amount of people it takes to operate it and all the duties these individuals are responsible for. It takes a very large quantity of people to operate FERC and many of these individuals put in many hours of work to help ensure everything it running safely and efficiently, to keep our energy uninterrupted. Lets take a look at how being without energy for long periods of time could become a life or death situation. Take hospitals for instance, a majority of people in an ICU unit is dependent on a ventilator, without energy the ventilators would cease to work which could cause a life or death situation for some patients. Bureaucracy and You 4 Although hospitals have a back up plan in case of interruption of energy but if the interruption lasts longer than anticipated, what happens then' FERC has backup plans in place also and it takes many people to put these plans in place and to make sure they are error proof. It is just absolutely amazing how many people this involves. So from Congress, to the board of directors, to consumers the FERC is a very large independent organization that everyone has come to rely on everyday, everywhere. Whether it be an older couple or a newborn baby we all depend on energy of one kind or another. Solar energy is another type of energy that is interesting although it is not regulated by the FERC because it is energy from the sun. I for one had not really thought of how important energy is in our everyday lives and how much we are dependent on it. I think the people involved with FERC should be commended for all their tireless efforts they put into this organization to help make our lives easier because no one know when there could be a major energy crisis that could tremendously affect all our lives, but hopefully with FERC we can all rest easy and know our energy will be around for a very long time to come. References: www.ferc.gov/students/whatisferc/history.htm