When it comes to using billions of federal stimulus dollars to build out a "smart" electricity distribution grid, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't want state regulators standing in the way. That's the gist of comment the Nevada Democrat made at a Washington D.C. clean energy meeting Monday, according to Reuters. Reid plans to introduce energy legislation on Thursday to speed the building of transmission infrastructure to bring remote solar-thermal, wind and geothermal power sources to population centers — and the bill would, among other things, seek to give the federal government the authority to build new transmission lines whether or not states like it, he said. While states will have a role to play in where transmission lines go, "there may come a time when the federal government has to step in" to overrule their objections, Reid said at the National Clean Energy Project, an event hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. (The event was a who's-who of energy and political big-wigs, including former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Texas oil billionaire and wind power and natural gas-fueled vehicle evangelist T. Boone Pickens, among others.) Reid's comments came the same day that Senator Jeff Bingaman said he wants to bring a separate energy bill to Congress in the next four to six weeks, one that would also deal with energy efficiency and incorporating renewable power into the nation's electricity system. The New Mexico Democrat is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which would take up Reid's bill once it is introduced. Whether Bingaman envisions the same federal powers on siting transmission lines as Reid's comments appeared to call for wasn't clear, though Bingaman did say that he wants to give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission more authority to modernize the nation's power grid, according to Reuters. Given that the stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama last week contains $11 billion to upgrade power transmission and distribution infrastructure — and $4.5 billion in matching grants to be given out to smart grid-related projects — it might not be surprising to see lawmakers and policy chiefs looking to assert more control over state utility regulators as to where transmission lines go.  Energy Secretary Steven Chu said last week that he intends to push for federally funded smart grid efforts to adhere to standard technologies to avoid today's efforts from lapsing into obsolescence in the years to come. (It's likely that the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which received $10 million in the stimulus bill to develop a smart grid interoperabilty framework, will play a role in defining those standards).  The lobbying over grabbing a portion of the stimulus package's smart grid funding is already underway, with utilities like Pepco and Pacific Gas & Electric and companies like IBM and Cisco Systems seeking to position their smart grid projects for a piece of the funding, Bloomberg reported Monday.