Permitting

The Hamilton Project (THP) at the Brookings Institution and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability will host an event exploring the roadblocks and tradeoffs that policymakers need to confront in order to create a resilient and clean electricity grid. Even as the federal permitting process has become more efficient, the fragmented governance of the grid has …

The rules announced Tuesday could help to more quickly carry out Mr. Biden’s signature climate law, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Analysts say it could be difficult to fully realize the benefits of the law if, say, the construction of transmission lines needed for renewable energy or electric vehicle charging stations is bogged down in the permitting process.

The Cardinal-Hickory transmission line exemplifies the litigation doom loop. After completing the strictest, most comprehensive form of environmental review between 2016 and 2020, the line was approved jointly by four federal agencies. But a judge enjoined the approval. Now, after a new plan was devised that would increase land for conservation, the project has again been enjoined.

The Biden administration on Thursday finalized a rule meant to speed up federal permits for major transmission lines, part of a broader push to expand America’s electric grids. Building new lines can take a decade or more because of permitting delays and local opposition.

The Energy Department is trying to use the limited tools at its disposal to pour roughly $20 billion into grid upgrades and to streamline approvals for new lines. But experts say a rapid, large-scale grid expansion may ultimately depend on Congress.

Editor’s Note:  This is a poster child for what’s broken about federal permitting.  This project was planned in the 2000s and approved after lengthy environmental and other review in 2015.  The suit was filed federally in January and dismissed in late April, subject to appeal … and a companion case in Arizona state courts.  If not dismissed there, further delays will add expense.  (A $10 billion dollar project delayed for a year in a 5% interest rate world costs $500 million annually.)

A lawsuit that has paused the completion of a power line in the Upper Midwest is part of a long-running conflict that has exposed differences within the environmental and clean energy advocacy communities.

Developers of the $649 million Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line have built about 100 of the project’s 102 miles, but they stopped work following a March 22 injunction by a U.S. district court judge in Wisconsin.