The U.S. Department of Energy issued a draft report in February that found a “pressing need” for new electric transmission infrastructure across the country to improve reliability, connect a rapidly growing number of solar, wind and battery storage projects, supply increasing electric demand and alleviate scattered pockets of consistently high prices across the country…

But in some states, bills that have been pushed by utilities to give them exclusive or preferential treatment for building regional transmission lines, called “right-of-first-refusal” laws, mean customers might pay more than they should for all those wires and towers, critics say…

“The more capital they spend, the more profit they make under government-guaranteed rates of return,” said Josiah Neeley, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a right-leaning free market think tank, in testimony on a failed right-of-first refusal bill in Wisconsin last year. “Historically, the absence of transmission competition has resulted in a severe lack of economic discipline — leading to cost overruns, with captive consumers footing the bill…”