The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is nearing its “final lap” on a highly anticipated transmission rule and could vote on a final version in the coming weeks, Chair Willie Phillips said Tuesday.
The commission’s long-running effort to improve how power lines are sited and how their costs are shared between states remains a “priority,” Phillips said at a winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). FERC has been under pressure to finalize the rule from clean energy advocates, Democratic lawmakers, tech giants and — as of Monday — a handful of congressional Republicans.
a handful of congressional Republicans
The rule could accelerate the transmission build-out necessary to add huge amounts of clean energy to the grid — and meet the Biden administration’s goal of a carbon-free power sector by 2035. To meet that target, the U.S. needs to more than double its existing regional transmission capacity and increase by fivefold the transmission lines between regions, according to a Department of Energy study.
Department of Energy study
It’s not clear exactly when FERC will vote on the proposed rule, which the commission has held under review for two years. FERC spokesperson Mary O’Driscoll said that “we cannot comment on or speculate about what the commission will do,” but “Chairman Phillips has been saying since last fall that there will be a transmission rule coming in the spring.”
