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Federal regulators must tackle interregional transmission planning in order to maximize the capacity of wind and solar power on the U.S. power grid, a bipartisan group of former Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioners and Chairs agreed on Wednesday.
Their consensus follows the release of a comprehensive report released from the nonprofit transmission advocacy group Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG) that calls for robust interregional planning in order to widen access to cheap renewable energy resources, as well as improve the overall resilience and reliability of the grid. The report calls for more than just a system upgrade it asks for a comprehensive overhaul of the current utility-by-utility piecemeal transmission buildout.
The policies that govern U.S. transmission grid planning and investment can’t support the country’s need for an unprecedented expansion of clean energy. Federal regulators need to declare the current paradigm “unjust and unreasonable,” and implement a new one to spur hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in a nation-spanning transmission build-out over the next decade.
That’s the stark conclusion of
Planning for the Future, a new report sponsored by clean-energy groups that have been demanding a major overhaul of federal transmission policy for years and see the Biden-Harris administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress as offering a pathway to get there.
It just makes sense : Harris County turns to renewable energy to power its buildings
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Vehicles cross Buffalo Bayou west of the Harris County Jail on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, in downtown Houston. Harris County is looking to switch to using renewable energy to power its buildings, something the city is already doing.Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
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Vehicles cross Buffalo Bayou west of the Harris County Jail (right) on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, in downtown Houston. Harris County is looking to switch to using renewable energy to power its buildings, something the city is already doing. On the left is the University of Houston Downtown.Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less