DOE announces its first National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors

The 2005 Energy Policy Act gave the Department of Energy (DOE) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) the authority to establish what are known as National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs). These are areas where it would be in the nation’s interest to build electrical transmission lines relatively quickly, for example because the area has too much grid congestion.

The issue is the big transmission lines have to go through lots of state and local permitting that can extend project timelines north of 15 years. The idea was to give the DOE and FERC authority over the permitting of these big important transmission lines, so they can still consult with state and local governments, but FERC would be a one stop permitting shop to make the process progress more efficiently and expediently.

But DOE and FERC were never able to execute on this plan due to court decisions in favor of states, landowners, and environmental groups. And so as the American Public Power Association summarizes Congress’ next step:

the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law amended the Federal Power Act to clarify the Secretary of Energy’s ability to designate any geographic area as a NIETC if it is determined that consumers are harmed, now or in the future, by a lack of transmission in the area and that the development of new transmission would advance important national interests for that region, such as increased reliability and reduced consumer costs.

That’s what the DOE is doing in this announcement. A lot of people have been urging DOE to move on this (and FERC to finalize a rule to use this authority as well, which they’re working on). There have been proposals in Congress like the SITE Act to give FERC this authority for big important interstate transmission lines without having to wait for DOE’s NIETC designations, but that’s struggled to get Republican support, and so advocates have been pressing DOE and FERC to move on using this existing authority.

The DOE just chose its first 10 preliminary NIETCs and will consult with the public and states. Some of these could drop out as a result of feedback before the list is finalized, possibly by the end of this year:

A lot of these corridors are where there are already transmission lines in development, like the Grain Belt Express, and DOE is trying to move them along faster with this announcement. They also often utilize existing rights of way like state highways, to minimize conflicts over land ownership and use, and many connect neighboring transmission regions, which would help them comply with the BIG WIRES Act, once it passes. So, this is good news and should accelerate the permitting of some important transmission lines