HOUSTON (Reuters) - The push to boost U.S. electric generation from wind and other renewable energy sources is forcing U.S. lawmakers to address the contentious issue of whether states or the federal government should have final authority to site new power lines, industry officials said on Friday.

Six 1.5-megawatt wind turbines are pictured at work at the Exelon-Community Energy Wind Farm at Somerset, Pennsylvania, August 10, 2008. REUTERS/Stelios Varias

Denise Bode, head of the American Wind Energy Association, said national oversight of transmission development is critical to exploit the country’s abundant wind energy resources.

Thousands of miles of new high-voltage lines will be needed to move electric generation from the windiest regions in the center of the country to power-hungry cities.

“We need a national transmission policy,” Bode said at the Gulf Coast Power Association conference on Friday.

She expressed optimism the issue can be resolved with legislation in the current Congress which is looking at economic and other measures to encourage renewable power to lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil and to create jobs.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission additional authority to oversee some transmission siting questions, but stopped short of giving the agency broad siting and planning responsibility.

Most power-line siting issues are handled by state regulators.

“The issue has matured” since that time, said Bode.

Pat Wood, former FERC chairman, said the agency is well-equipped to handle the task, given its experience regulating the nation’s vast interstate natural gas pipeline system.

“They were ready yesterday,” said Wood, from the conference sidelines. “It has worked great for gas.”

“Nobody talks about it because it works,” said Wood. “It’s paid for and it’s safe. That is what we want for the power grid.”

FERC’s new siting authority has been challenged in court, so statutory changes will be needed, Wood said.

Bode also said a federal mandate calling for a percentage of the nation’s the electric supply to come from less-polluting resources, known as a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), is

needed if the administration wants to rebuild the economy with manufacturing jobs tied to wind and other clean energy sources.

“A state-by-state RPS cannot create the national market to bring these jobs in,” said Bode. “If you are trying to get manufacturing companies to grow in the U.S., chasing an RPS in each state won’t work.”