Permitting reform is back. Is the latest deal worth it?

In its current state, “the transmission system can’t accommodate the type of renewable growth that Congress was trying to promote” in the Inflation Reduction Act, said Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the think tank R Street Institute. Researchers at Princeton University’s ZERO Lab estimated in 2022 that more than 80 percent of the potential emissions cuts of the IRA depend on doubling the current rate of transmission buildout nationally…

“To get traction with Republicans on transmission, I think you really need to amplify the consumer voices and the principled, practical pro-market voices,” Hartman said. “That will counterbalance the voice of the incumbent utilities, who are very anti-market and want to suppress regional and interregional transmission development because it exposes their monopolies to outside transmission.”