America’s energy system has a problem: Solar and wind developers want to build renewable energy at a breakneck pace — and historic climate legislation has fueled their charge with financial incentives worth billions of dollars. But too often the power that these projects can produce has nowhere to go. That’s because the high-voltage lines that move energy across the country don’t have the capacity to handle what these panels and turbines generate.
There is one exception: The new FERC rule builds off of a comprehensive approach developed by the transmission authority responsible for most of the Midwest, which retooled its planning in part to help meet some of its states’ aggressive climate targets. The new federal regulation requires operators in every U.S. region to similarly consider at least three potential scenarios for how their electricity requirements will change over the coming two decades and establish plans in line with them.
“These reforms are coming at a critical time,” said Christine Powell, deputy managing attorney for the clean energy program at the nonprofit Earthjustice. Powell added that it can sometimes take 10 years to get new transmission lines built given the logistical hurdles involved, so getting planning processes started as soon as possible is essential.
Still, FERC commissioner Mark Christie, a Republican and the lone “no” vote in Monday’s decision, claimed in his dissent that the process was rushed. Powell, who worked at FERC for eight years, disputed this in an interview with
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