permitting reform
AOC, Casar, and Markey Unveil Ambitious Measure to Build Green Electric Grid
"To run on green energy, we have to build green infrastructure," said Sen. Ed Markey. "The clean energy revolution is here—but we need a 21st-century electric grid to support it."
U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greg Casar joined Sen. Ed Markey on Thursday to reintroduce legislation that aims to "lay the groundwork for America's clean energy revolution by advancing critical electric infrastructure to strengthen reliability and lower costs for consumers."
Previously put forward by Markey (D-Mass.) last year, the Connecting Hard-to-Reach Areas With Renewably Generated Energy (CHARGE) Act would mandate reforms through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to accelerate the energy transition by supporting the development of transmission networks.
The bill comes amid fierce debates over permitting reforms—with Republicans and right-wing Democrats trying to gut federal environmental protections and serve fossil fuel giants while claiming that their proposals will boost clean energy. It also comes as much of the Northern Hemisphere endures soaring temperatures, one consequence of humanity continuing to heat up the planet.
"For the United States to run on green energy, we first need to build green infrastructure," said Markey, who co-chairs the Senate Climate Change Task Force and has long led the fight for Green New Deal legislation with Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). "Right now, the United States relies on two-lane roads for our electricity traffic when we need a renewable energy superhighway."
"The CHARGE Act lays the groundwork for an energy grid that can support an explosion of electric-powered vehicles and buildings, while also improving energy reliability, lowering costs for consumers, and spurring economic competition," Markey explained. "My legislation will supply America with the tools and guidance needed to turn the clean energy revolution up a notch, accelerating our shift to true energy independence that breaks our nation's reliance on foreign oil from countries like Russia."
As a statement from Markey's office detailed, the bill would:
- Require that transmission plans prioritize lower prices for customers and reliability and resiliency of the grid, incorporate decarbonization goals and severe weather scenarios, and avoid sensitive environmental areas and cultural heritage sites;
- Increase data transparency and oversight;
- Ensure that utilities follow through on their clean energy commitments;
- Create a reliability standard that will ensure electricity can flow between different regions of the country in the event of large-scale or long-duration blackouts;
- Require a study on the benefits to and effects on consumers from competitive generation and publicly and cooperatively owned generation and transmission;
- Establish an advisory committee to improve the governance and stakeholder participation practices of grid operators;
- Mandate transparency regarding Regional Transmission Organization and Independent System Operator voting, board meetings, and stakeholder meetings; and
- Require FERC to develop rules to provide intervenor funding to help individuals or parties from disadvantaged or underrepresented communities navigate and engage in FERC proceedings.
Ocasio-Cortez highlighted that "our patchwork transmission system is blocking billions of dollars in new renewable deployment," and it is "also increasingly vulnerable to widespread power outages in nearly every part of the country."
The combination of power outages and extreme temperatures can be deadly. British meteorologist Laura Tobin said during a Wednesday broadcast that Phoenix, Arizona has had a record-breaking 19 consecutive days of temperatures hitting at least 110°F and "is one of the first cities in the world to become uninhabitable unless they have air conditioning."
As the Phoenix-based KJZZnoted Wednesday, a study published in May in the journal Environmental Science & Technology found that if an extended blackout cut off AC for everyone in the city of about 1.6 million people during a heatwave, almost half of them would need emergency care and nearly 13,000 would die.
"In hot cities, air conditioning is a critical lifeline in the summer," study co-author David Hondula, director of Phoenix's Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, told the radio station. He also stressed that an event like the study warns of is unlikely—as he put it, "We're talking about slivers of a fraction of a percent of possibility."
Still, the dangers of the current high temperatures in many places have fueled fresh calls for climate action—including and especially rapidly switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
"As the climate crisis worsens, we must do everything we can to increase grid reliability across the country. That's why we must pass the CHARGE Act," said Casar (D-Texas). "Every single family should be able to rely on their utilities."
Groups backing the measure—including the Center for Biological Diversity, Clean Energy Grid Action (CEGA), Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Public Citizen—concurred.
"Our clean energy transition depends on building new high-capacity transmission lines," said CEGA executive director Christina Hayes. "We need legislation that will accelerate this development, unlocking new domestic energy resources and making sure the lights stay on during severe weather episodes like the intense heatwaves we've experienced across America this summer."
Green Groups Outline How to Boost Electricity Transmission Without Gutting Environmental Laws
"As we envision a clean energy future, we must actively ensure that the build-out sacrifices none and serves all," said one advocate.
As the United States ramps up clean energy production, the growing recognition that the nation's electricity grid currently lacks the capacity required to fully integrate renewables has prompted calls from across the political spectrum for so-called "permitting reforms" that proponents say are necessary to expedite the construction of transmission lines and related infrastructure.
On Thursday, a coalition of environmental justice groups staunchly opposed to those calls—on the grounds that the reforms proposed so far amount to discarding hard-won regulations—published a white paper outlining how to "address the transmission bottleneck and rapidly scale up infrastructure that advances an equitable clean energy future... while preventing harm to impacted communities and without eroding bedrock environmental protections."
The new blueprint for a just acceleration of transmission capacity was developed by WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, Center for American Progress, League of Conservation Voters, National Hispanic Medical Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Union of Concerned Scientists.
Building on principles the nine groups released in December, the white paper provides "clear, actionable steps for policymakers," including some "that can be implemented under existing legal authorities and others that require legislative action."
Before recommending solutions, the coalition spells out the problem:
To accelerate the essential transition from fossil fuel-fired power plants to renewable energy, we need to build more transmission to move clean energy across the country in addition to scaling up local, distributed clean energy resources. Transmission is also critical to ensuring grid reliability and resilience, particularly as we face extreme weather events caused by climate change.
However, we are not building transmission at the pace and scale needed today: The current annual growth rate of transmission infrastructure is just 1%. The result is a backlog of roughly 8,000 generators waiting to connect to the grid and significant uncertainty for clean energy developers about whether and when their projects will be able to provide power to homes and businesses. The transmission bottleneck leaves huge climate benefits on the table, including those made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act. To fully realize the IRA's emissions reductions benefits and transition to a clean grid, we need to at least double current transmission capacity by the end of this pivotal decade.
The problem has also been detailed by The Washington Post in December and by the National Bureau of Economic Research in a working paper published this month. Even though rapidly "electrifying everything" and cleaning up electricity by replacing coal, oil, and gas with wind, solar, and other carbon-free energy sources is key to averting the worst consequences of the climate crisis, insufficient transmission capacity is leading to "interconnection queues," increasing the "curtailment"—or temporary dropping from the grid—of power supplied by renewables, and otherwise hindering lifesaving decarbonization efforts.
A wide range of political actors have endorsed the need for so-called "permitting reform." Not all of them are champions of green energy generation. For instance, congressional Republicans and right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have pushed to weaken rules around building infrastructure of all kinds because the fossil fuel industry they are beholden to stands to benefit from deregulation.
"Urgency cannot become a pretext for gutting the requirements of environmental review and public engagement as we embark on what could be the greatest U.S. infrastructure build-out in nearly a century."
But even some clean energy advocates have argued that "environmental laws are used to kill climate-friendly development," as University of California Davis law professor Chris Elmendorf put it earlier this year in Mother Jones. Meanwhile, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom—currently embroiled in a fight with progressive activists who warn that his proposal to expedite the construction of green infrastructure ignores the need for democratic deliberation and transparency—recently toldThe New York Times' Ezra Klein that "we need to build. You can't be serious about climate and the environment without reforming permitting and procurement in this state."
The coalition agrees that "we urgently need policy reform," stating in its white paper: "We need to modify and improve the rules of the road for planning, paying for, and siting transmission. And we need to create a federal pathway for siting transmission lines that are essential to bringing new renewable generators online."
However, "we must also reject the false choice between quickly ramping up transmission and protecting communities from harmful permitting decisions," the paper continues. "Urgency cannot become a pretext for gutting the requirements of environmental review and public engagement as we embark on what could be the greatest U.S. infrastructure build-out in nearly a century. To build transmission faster and more fairly, we need smart reforms that target the drivers of the transmission bottleneck while preserving critical environmental, health, and community protections and enhancing community engagement."
The "smart reforms" identified in the coalition's roadmap include:
- The Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) must finalize strong transmission planning and interconnection rules to address transmission needs, maximize consumer benefits, and ensure meaningful opportunities for community engagement;
- FERC must establish environmental justice liaisons to support consultation and planning in environmental justice communities and tribal nations;
- FERC must require interregional transmission planning;
- The U.S. Department of Energy and FERC should leverage the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor designation process and backstop siting provisions recently strengthened by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in order to site certain high-priority transmission lines;
- Congress should amend the Federal Power Act (FPA) to give FERC the authority to site large-scale interstate transmission projects that meet certain requirements; and
- Congress should amend the FPA to allow FERC to better assess the multiple benefits associated with a transmission project.
"To cut emissions and save lives, we need to shift swiftly and equitably to a 100% clean electricity grid," Jill Tauber, vice president of litigation for climate and energy at Earthjustice, said in a statement. "Transmission plays a key role in this essential transition, but we face serious barriers to building clean energy infrastructure at the speed and scale needed."
"The key reforms outlined in this paper—many of which the federal government can implement today—will help build the backbone of a zero-emissions economy, while preserving and strengthening community and environmental protections," said Tauber. "We must do both to build a clean energy future that leaves no one behind."
Tauber's sentiment was echoed by Jasmine Jennings, an attorney at WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
"We must build infrastructure necessary to transmit clean, renewable energy and transition beyond dirty, polluting fossil fuel infrastructure," said Jennings. "It is equally important that the build-out is just, equitable, and sustainable and that communities are not harmed in the process."
"Early and ongoing engagement with impacted communities, increased grid reliability and resilience, sustainable pathways for interregional transmission projects, and cost allocation are key to this transition," Jennings added. "As we envision a clean energy future, we must actively ensure that the build-out sacrifices none and serves all."
Pipeline Opponents Disrupt Semafor Conference as Manchin Takes Stage
The senator appeared at the summit days after pushing through language in the debt ceiling bill that will expedite the permitting process for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Organizers of a summit on so-called "permitting reform" hosted by the fossil fuel-linked news outlet Semafor were forced to delay the event on Tuesday when several climate campaigners interrupted Sen. Joe Manchin's remarks to protest the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a pet project of the right-wing West Virginia Democrat.
About two dozen protesters assembled on the stage at the event just as Manchin began speaking about his desire to speed up the approval of projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a $6.6 billion fracked gas project that would run from the senator's home state to Virginia, passing through wetlands and waterways.
"Dirty deal, MVP, Manchin, you are killing me!" chanted the demonstrators, who Bloomberg Law reported were representing the direct action group Climate Defiance. The group also sang the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
\u201cBREAKING: We just fully shut down Senator Joe Manchin's keynote address.\n\nHe is shoving a 2,000,000,000 cubic-foot-per-day fracked gas pipeline down our throats. \n\nManchin is not a moderate. Manchin is an ecocidal millionaire. We must resist him with all we've got. And we will.\u201d— Climate Defiance (@Climate Defiance) 1686075030
The demonstration came days after President Joe Biden signed into law debt ceiling legislation over the objections of climate campaigners as well as economic justice groups. The so-called Fiscal Responsibility Act includes a requirement that federal agencies approve all remaining permits for the MVP, which has been stalled in the courts as opponents have challenged its threats to the environment in the region the pipeline will pass through. The law also shields the permits from judicial review.
The pipeline is also projected to emit the equivalent of more than 89 million metric tons of carbon at a time when climate scientists and energy experts have warned that fossil fuel emissions must be rapidly drawn down to limit planetary heating to below 2°C above preindustrial levels.
Manchin secured the MVP language in the debt ceiling bill after his previous attempts to include the "dirty deal" regarding expedited permitting in the National Defense Authorization Act and in a stopgap funding bill last year.
The senator left the stage during the protest and claimed the protesters' actions would help him "tremendously" in his state, although polls have shown that West Virginians support a transition to clean energy.
\u201cClimate protesters disrupted Manchin\u2019s Semafor Q&A today on permitting and Mountain Valley pipeline. Speaking now in the back room, Manchin said \u201cwhat these people did today helps me tremendously in my state\u201d politically.\u201d— Ella Nilsen (@Ella Nilsen) 1686065235
Campaigners who have fought the MVP for years have said they will not back down following the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition is planning a rally in front of the White House on Thursday, and the local group Preserve Bent Mountain in Virginia said Monday that "it is not yet clear whether the stench of the MVP/debt limit deal will surpass legal scrutiny."
"Even if some of these permits are issued and initially shielded from judicial review, that's not necessarily the end of the line," Jason Rylander, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity," told the independent outlet Cardinal News on Monday. "The pipeline still has to cross some of the most difficult terrain along the route, through the Jefferson National Forest and other areas, and there will be opportunities to hold them accountable for the damage they are continuing to do."