The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to consider a bill Wednesday that addresses federal authority in energy transmission siting. Delivering renewable energy to a broad consumer base will require a vast overhaul of the country’s current piecemeal energy transmission system and regulatory authorities. This measure would remove time-consuming roadblocks to planning and installing the transmission lines needed to move the energy from remote areas to more-populated regions. (Check out this RFF commentary for more on that debate.)
(NPR delivers an interactive look at the state of the U.S. energy generation and transmission system as well as what current proposals would do to change the transmission landscape.)
But debate over the way to unify the nation’s disjointed systems will turn on issues of financing and regulation, as some states are better suited geographically than others to generate renewable energy. Questions like whether consumers or generators should bear costs must be resolved before interstate transmission systems can be realized.
As 10 governors from eastern states sent a letter to congressional leaders asking them to consider changing perceived state-to-state inequities in the siting bill, governors from the Midwest touted the boon green jobs could deliver to the economies of their states.
For much more on transmission, siting, and renewable energy, see RFF on the Grid and Renewables.
