Dive Brief:
- The U.S. electrical grid will have to roughly double in size over the next few decades to bring online the unprecedented amount of clean energy projects being developed as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act – a goal that state, local and executive agencies should use their power to work toward without waiting for additional federal legislation, says a new report from clean energy group Evergreen Action.
- The report, first shared with Utility Dive, makes a case for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy, and individual states acting immediately to speed up siting and permitting processes for transmission and clean energy projects.
- “We think that additional reforms around [the National Environmental Policy Act] and transmission in Congress are a bit of a red herring, and that transmission advocates and folks who want to build out a robust and clean grid should really look to executive action as the next phase of policy changes,” lead author Charles Harper said in an interview.
Dive Insight:
Though Harper said he agrees with the general consensus that action from Congress will be needed in the long term to build out the national grid, “waiting on this Congress to take those actions is setting yourself up for false hope.”
“There are so many things that we can do in the short term right now to speed up permitting, transmission, and clean energy through NEPA implementation, through state policy on siting reform, and we can't wait,” he said. “One thing Congress was talking about for a long time is requiring interregional transfer capability – but that's something that FERC can do right now, using existing authority.”
During last month’s Greentech conference, Princeton University’s ZERO Lab leader Jesse Jenkins said the previous decade’s annual average of 1% transmission capacity growth will have to rise to 2.3% in order to avoid a constrained transmission scenario in which half of the potential emissions reductions from the IRA go undelivered.
“The IRA is an unprecedented financial opportunity for the clean energy transition,” Harper said. “But unfortunately, our approval and permitting processes are not up to snuff. So right now, the real roadblock to building out the clean energy that we need to hit all of our climate targets is that slow timeline.”
Some of the measures Evergreen Action recommends include FERC finalizing rules on transmission planning and backstop siting, the Department of Energy finalizing its proposed rule to serve as lead agency for transmission planning and designating National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, and state legislatures passing laws to “unify renewable energy siting and permitting authority at the state level.”
Harper, Evergreen’s power sector senior policy lead, said the group would like to see more state legislation in the vein of Michigan’s recently passed package of energy siting bills, which were aimed at streamlining permitting for large renewable projects.
“That's one really positive example of what states can do using their own authority… and we would love to see other states take advantage,” he said. “I think the U.S. is on a precipice of a lot of progress around transmission, but a lot is depending on what happens next year.”
One measure Harper sees as particularly key is FERC’s pending notice of proposed rulemaking, or NOPR, on long-term regional transmission planning, which he said Evergreen Action views as “the single most important policy to unlock the benefits of the clean energy transition.”
“If FERC passes and finalizes a strong transmission planning rule, really enforces it and requires RTOs, ISOs and utilities to robustly and proactively plan out the transmission grid, we can get it done,” he said. “That’s the first step. The second step is getting all those lines approved.”
The report recommends a number of techniques for speeding approvals – including an increase in the use of Mitigated Findings of No Significant Impact Environmental Assessments under NEPA. These can “result when an agency concludes its NEPA review with an [environmental assessment] that is based on a commitment to mitigate significant environmental impacts, so that a more detailed [environmental impact statement] is not required,” according to the Council on Environmental Quality.
“By committing to enforceable mitigation actions, agencies ensure that analysis reflects meaningful efforts to avoid, minimize, and mitigate significant effects,” the report says. “If the proposed mitigation actions will render the impacts of a project insignificant, the project will not require a full EIS, potentially saving years of permitting time.”
The NOPR has faced particular opposition from Commissioner James Danly, who said in a 2022 dissent that he would “normally not oppose a NOPR” and “[welcomes] long term transmission planning reform,” but called this particular proposal a “boondoggle” that “seeks to change virtually all aspects of transmission planning” for the purpose of favoring renewable energy.
“Entire sections of the NOPR read like a think tank’s wish list rather than a rigorous analysis,” he wrote.
Harper said Danly’s term expiring at the end of the year is likely to result in a commission majority in favor of the NOPR, which has made the group “really optimistic” about the likelihood of the agency passing that and other major rules on transmission in 2024.
