Voters Support Building Electric Power Transmission Infrastructure
By Carly Berke
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) makes a historic, once-in-a-generation investment in climate and clean energy and brings us to the precipice of a transformational shift in the U.S. economy that will redefine how we generate, transfer, store, use, and replenish energy. But the success of wind, solar, and other low-carbon technologies — and, inversely, the fate of fossil fuel demand and consumption in the U.S. — depends on our ability to build these projects, as well as our ability to upgrade and expand the transmission infrastructure upon which clean electricity delivery relies.
For the IRA’s investments to successfully and equitably transition our economy to clean energy and fulfill President Biden’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050, we must rapidly upgrade and expand our electric grid. Specifically, we need to build high-capacity, long-distance transmission lines that can cheaply and reliably deliver clean electricity from where it’s generated, like wind and solar farms, to where it’s consumed, like buildings and homes in cities across the U.S. In fact, a new Department of Energy study found a “significant need” for interregional transmission throughout the United States.
Right now, our electric grid faces massive constraints. Our infrastructure is aging and antiquated, calling into question the grid’s ability to handle extreme weather and natural disasters. The recent blackouts in Michigan, as well as the devastating winter storms in Texas in February 2021, revealed the shortcomings of our electric grid. Power outages in the last six years have more than doubled compared with the previous six years.
What’s more, over 8,000 energy projects, the majority of which are wind, solar, or battery projects, are waiting for permission to connect to the electric grid through what is known as the interconnection process. On average, it takes roughly four years for developers to get permission to connect to the grid, and when their projects finally come to review, the local grid is often already at capacity, requiring costly upgrades and new buildout.
These problems threaten the success of the IRA. According to Princeton’s Net-Zero America study, the U.S. may need to triple its transmission infrastructure in order to fully decarbonize by 2050; our current annual rate of growth is 1 percent. If transmission expansion is limited to that current rate of growth, natural gas use will increase to 4 percent above 2021 levels in 2030, and we’ll fail to maximize the IRA’s emissions reduction potential. That means if we don’t build out the transmission infrastructure necessary to meet growing demand for clean electricity, we’re actually going to increase our fossil fuel consumption, despite the IRA’s major investments in clean energy.
New polling from Data for Progress finds voters back proposals to expedite transmission buildout and reliably deliver electricity across the national grid. Voters widely support reducing the time it takes to approve new interstate power lines, including Democrats by a +57-point margin, Independents by a +53-point margin, and Republicans by a +58-point margin.
We also split respondents into three groups and asked each group whether they would be supportive of building new high-voltage power lines in their community, state, or country. Each group responded overwhelmingly in support of building new power lines, regardless of presented geography.
In particular, voters would support building new high-voltage power lines in their community by a +54-point margin, in their state by a +55-point margin, and in the country by a +61-point margin.
We also asked three groups of respondents whether they would support building new fossil fuel infrastructure in their community, state, or country. Voters prefer power lines to fossil fuel infrastructure in their community by a +45-point margin; in their state by a +37-point margin; and in the country by a +41-point margin.
One proposed way to make it easier to build interstate transmission infrastructure is federalizing siting authority for interregional transmission lines within the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC), the independent agency that regulates electric utilities.
Data for Progress polling finds voters support giving the federal government the authority to approve new interstate power lines by a +43-point margin, including Democrats by a +58-point margin, Independents by a +36-point margin, and Republicans by a +33-point margin.
Combined with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the CHIPS and Science Act, the IRA is putting the federal government to the task of dispensing billions of dollars to upgrade our aging infrastructure; develop and deploy emissions-cutting, clean energy technologies; strengthen our electric grid; expand electric vehicle and EV charging infrastructure production; enact new clean energy tax credits; and create high-paying, union jobs in clean energy industries.
But to capitalize on these investments, reach our climate goals, and catalyze an equitable, efficient, and rapid transition to net-zero, we need to buildout high-capacity, long-distance power lines and build the grid of the future.
Carly Berke is the Political Manager at Data for Progress.