Democrats' Transmission Bill – the Clean Electricity Transmission Acceleration Act

For over 9 months, Congressional Democrats have been working on a big transmission permitting reform bill that they just officially introduced, called the Clean Electricity Transmission Acceleration Act. This bill is intended to be sort of a starting point for Democrats in bipartisan permitting reform negotiations. Basically, Democrats will try to get as many of the components from this bill included in a bipartisan package.

There's a lot of stuff in this bill, whose text is 210 pages long. There's also a 7-page summary, most of which I've included in bullet point form in my document comparing permitting reform proposals across the political spectrum. Here are some of those key provisions (there are more, especially on topics related to environmental justice, but these are some of the more likely ones to be included in a bipartisan package, I think):

  • Directs FERC to increase the effectiveness of interregional transmission planning.
  • Gives FERC transmission cost allocation authority for big lines of national significance, and to require utilities to allocate costs proportional to benefits.
  • Directs FERC to require utilities to consult about deploying grid enhancing technologies in addition to or instead of transmission expansion. Allows interconnection customers to request the use of those technologies, allocates costs according to benefits.
  • Directs FERC to establish minimum inter-regional transmission capacity similar to BIG WIRES Act levels.
  • Gives FERC siting authority for national interest transmission lines, or those that cross at least two states and have a capacity greater than 1 GW.
  • Allows DOE to finance any transmission facilities designated as in the national interest.
  • Establishes an investment tax credit for transmission lines, up to 30% for projects that meet prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements.
  • Establishes FERC Office of Electricity Transmission.
  • Directs DOE to study offshore wind transmission needs.

Again one key point to bear in mind is that this is a Democrats-only bill and not intended to pass, given the divided Congress. It's intended as a starting point for bipartisan negotiations, and includes lots of good transmission reforms, some of which will hopefully make it into a bipartisan package.

9 Replies

@Dana Nuccitelli
CETA is a good response to HR1, which only mentioned electrical power in the definitions.  

Rob Johnson
74 Posts

@Dana Nuccitelli

I see your bulliets, but, I don’t see any permit reform.
 

Hi @Rob Johnson. The FERC transmission line siting authority is another way of saying giving FERC authority over the permitting or big interstate transmission lines. And items don't have to specifically reform the permitting process to make it into a permitting reform package. See BIG WIRES, for example. The goal of a permitting reform package is to make it easier to build energy infrastructure in the US, so provisions that can help accomplish that goal could be included in the package.

Rob Johnson
74 Posts

@Dana Nuccitelli

 

Does it amend NEPA, or CWA, ESA ect ?

My next question would be is it a carve out for power lines,  apparently this bill is 100 % power lines and does not reform any other type of project.  Right ?


 

Hi @Rob Johnson. There are some changes to NEPA, for example to increase community involvement and include consideration of GHG emissions impacts. Democrats mostly want to keep those laws intact though, so there's not much in the way of amendments.

The bill is mostly focused on transmission but it also touches on community involvement, environmental justice, general clean energy siting on public lands, and offshore wind.

Rob Johnson
74 Posts

@Dana Nuccitelli

Hi,  I looked at your big list of permit reform bills, sorted by ideology,  

What does CCL want ?  Do you have CCL position on all those bills ? 

Are we looking for permit reform in general or is it a carve out,  so only for certain types of projects.   
 

Hi @Rob Johnson. Check out our permitting reform training pages, and this section of one of the training videos explains the principles CCL supports (at the 10:06 mark):

Rob Johnson
74 Posts

@Dana Nuccitelli

ok, thanks, there is a lot there.   

So it says CCL wants a carve out. Then it says that is not possible and will probably get overall permit reform as none of the bills do that. 
 

Beki Thomson
194 Posts

@Dana Nuccitelli Recent discussion on Volts, with Reps. Casten and Levin.
 

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