Report on overcoming transmission permitting barriers

Our friends at Niskanen and the Clean Air Task Force published a new report, recommendations for overcoming barriers to federal transmission permitting. Some of the areas they touch focus on things that regulatory agencies can do, like working together and with state and tribal groups in a more efficient manner. But there are a lot of suggestions relevant to Congressional permitting reform negotiations.

For example, the report discusses the importance of supporting early and sustained community engagement in the permitting process. That's something we at CCL have been talking about since we expanded into this policy area. The report also talks about streamlining the permitting of big important interstate transmission lines:

Congress should grant FERC comprehensive and plenary permitting and siting powers for key transmission projects. The Streamlining Interstate Transmission of Electricity (SITE) and Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration (CETA) Acts serve as possible legislative models.

That's something we've also long talked about, although it's an idea that hasn't been able to get bipartisan support so far, so it may not make it into a permitting reform deal. So the report is pretty consistent with what we've been advocating for in this area, plus some recommendations for things federal agencies can do. In a webinar about the report, they also touched on the fact that inter-regional transmission is particularly needed, which highlights the effectiveness of the BIG WIRES Act, which CCL has advocated for and has a good chance of being included in a bipartisan deal.

There have been a number of news articles saying that Senators Manchin and Barasso are getting very close to finishing a bipartisan permitting reform deal, so hopefully we'll have more to say on the subject in the near future 🤓

1 Replies
Wayne Willis
126 Posts
Yes, they also made the point that Inter-regional transmission would materially make cheaper energy available to neighbors, thus benefiting customers ("Deliver low-cost generation to high priced demand"

"Interregional transmission results in the largest benefits."
 

Forum help

Select a question below

CCL Community's Sitewide Forums are an easy and exciting way to interact with other members on CCL Community.  The Sitewide Forums are focused on subjects and areas of general interest to members.  Each forum consists of topics that members have posted, along with replies from other members. Some forums are divided into categories to group similar topics together. 

Any members can post a topic or reply to a topic.

The Sitewide Forums are open to the entire CCL community to create, comment on, and view online discussions.  Posts and comments should address the subject or focus of the selected forum. 

Note: Categories can only be created by community administrators.

Guidelines for posting: (also see general Community Guidelines)

  • Don’t see your question or topic? Post it.
  • Be thoughtful, considerate (nonpartisan) and complete. The more information you supply, the better the better and more engaging the conversation will be. 
  • Feel like cursing? Please don’t.
  • Ask yourself, “Would my topic post reveal sensitive or confidential information?” If so, please don't post!

Flag/report any offending comments, and then move on. In the rare instance of a comment containing a potentially credible threat, escalate that immediately to CCL.

If the Sitewide Forum has no categories, select the "Add Topic" button at the top of topics window. 

If the forum has categories, when you click on "Add Topic," a dropdown list of the categories appears. Select the desired category and then "Add Topic."
In either case this brings up a box to enter both the topic subject and topic text.

If you have questions or wish to add comments on a posted forum topic, open the post and click the blue “Add Reply” button at top. You can also click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the original topic posting.

This opens a text box. Add your reply. You can also add documents by dragging a file into the text box. Click “Post” at the bottom of the reply window This will add your reply to other replies (if there are any), sorted by oldest on top. 

If, however, you want to reply directly to someone else’s reply, click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of their reply. 

When replying to a topic post or a topic reply it may be helpful to quote the original text, or the part that your reply is referring to. To quote a topic or reply, click on the "Quote" link at bottom of post. 

When you do this the full text of either the post or reply will be pulled into a reply text box. If desired, you can remove parts of the quoted text in order to get the portion you are interested in quoting.

You can subscribe to notifications of new postings from any of the Sitewide Forums or forum categories. To subscribe, select the green “Subscribe” button at the top of the forum. Click on dropdown arrow to select frequency of notification.

If you are already subscribed, the button will display “Unsubscribe.”  Select it to unsubscribe or select the dropdown arrow to modify frequency of notification. 

Note: If you subscribe to a Sitewide Forum, such as "Media Relations" that has categories (such as "LTEs and Op-Eds"), you will also be subscribed to all the categories. If you wish to subscribe to only one or more of the categories, unsubscribe to the parent forum and subscribe individually to desired categories.

.

If you see a topic post or reply that interests you or that you like, you can click the “Like” icon at the bottom of the topic post or the reply. This lets the poster know that the topic was helpful. It also contributes to the topic’s popularity, which influences where it is listed in the "Popular" forum tab. There are also additional reactions available for members to use. Mouseover the "Like" icon to choose one of these options: Love, Clap, Celebrate, Insightful, or Interesting.

CCL Community Guidelines

  • Discuss, ask and share
  • Be respectful
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Protect privacy

More guidelines
 

CCL Blog Policy Area Categories