America’s future needs a much better power grid. Will Congress help get one? – San Diego Union-Tribune

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Upgrading and expanding the nation’s aging power grid to withstand extreme weather and handle increasing energy demands is something almost everyone says is needed.

Agreement on how to get there is not so universal.

Nevertheless, a major step toward that goal was taken a couple of weeks ago when a bipartisan bill aimed at bolstering the electricity grid and expediting energy permits passed a key Senate committee.

The measure by Sens. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va, and John Barrasso, R-Wyo., included proposals that was offered in separate legislation by Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, and other members of Congress who have made grid reliability and improvement a priority.

“I am encouraged to see they included bold, meaningful reforms to transmission permitting and planning in their legislation,” Peters said in a statement in late July

He said the bill includes core provisions of the SPEED and Reliability Act and the BIG WIRES Act, both of which Peters introduced with Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.

Among other things, those proposals reduce duplicative reviews and require interregional planning, according to Peters.

He added that the senators “also take strong steps to streamline the siting and permitting of clean energy resources on federal lands.”

The measure was approved on a15-4 vote by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chaired by Manchin.

Peters said “there is still much work to be done and I look forward to continuing my talks with House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) on our own permitting reform proposal.”

The San Diego Democrat’s statement is silent on another aspect of the Manchin-Barrasso measure titled the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024: Components of the bill would expedite fossil fuel development as well. The measure also reduces the amount of time to legally challenge energy projects, including those for oil, gas and coal.

Those provisions, among others, have drawn opposition from more than 360 environmental groups, who recently expressed their concerns in a letter to Manchin and Barrasso, contending the bill would “lock the United States into continued fossil fuel production — wreaking havoc on our environment, health, and livelihoods…”

But there is a split. Numerous Democrats, environmentalists and clean energy producers support the bill, with some arguing it’s a necessary compromise.

“There are some things in this that will increase emissions,” said energy committee member Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., according to The Hill.

Heinrich and others said the emissions caused by the fossil-fuel provisions would be outweighed by the benefits of clean energy, reliability and potential cost-reductions to consumers they say the bill would bring. A Peters spokesperson echoed that sentiment this week.

“Without these changes, we will not be able to fully utilize the funding delivered in the Inflation Reduction Act,” said MaryAnne Pintar, Peters’ chief of staff, referring to the 2022 federal legislation that channels billions of dollars into clean energy projects.

Transmission line construction has slowed in recent years, in part because of delays and rejected proposals. Yet the energy department estimates that the nation’s grid may need to expand by two-thirds or more by 2035 to meet President Joe Biden’s goals to power the country with clean energy, according to The New York Times.

Much of the power grid was built in the 1960s and 1970s, and over 70 percent of transmission lines are more than 25 years old, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. A lot of it will need to be replaced in the coming decades and the nation already is facing challenges getting energy from remote solar and wind projects to populated areas.

The growth of data centers and artificial intelligence will put further strain on the transmission system.

Meanwhile, the frequency and severity of power outages are increasing, in part due to extreme weather, according to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee.

The energy department estimates that outages cost American businesses $150 billion per year. Additionally, a lack of transmission capacity to deliver the lowest-cost generation, known as grid congestion, cost consumers an estimated $20.8 billion in 2022.

Advocates for continuing to rely on fossil fuels contend traditional energy sources can’t be done away with unless alternative energy supplies — and access to them — are guaranteed to replace them in a cost-effective way. They note that other countries such as China and Russia are expanding fossil fuel production.

Some backers of the bill were incredulous at the opposition by environmental groups.

“We have the opportunity to pass one of the most consequential pro-clean energy bills in American history and these crazies are trying to kill it,” Chris Barnard, president of the American Conservation Coalition, said on X.

But House Republican leaders appear to be lukewarm to a permitting and transmission package, according to E&E News, a subsidiary of Politico. In part, that’s because they have concerns it gives the federal government too much control over distributing costs and would could usurp power from the states and local jurisdictions.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was the lone energy committee Republican who voted against the bill, along with Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The Biden White House, which has backed past permitting speedup proposals, hasn’t said much this time around.

There’s considerable speculation about whether full congressional action on the bill will occur before the November election. The late entry of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee upended the dynamics of the election. Harris has not given a public position on the Manchin-Barrasso bill.

As a senator, Harris pushed for strong environmental policies and co-sponsored the Green New Deal, the sweeping proposal for climate action, job creation and shift to a single-payer health care system that was never adopted.

The chess match over who will win majorities in the House and Senate may be a bigger political factor in the uncertainty facing the bill.

Far less complex matters have been sideline by election-year politics.

Originally Published: August 13, 2024 at 7:31 a.m.

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