"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission took a long-awaited step yesterday toward ushering in grid reforms that could dramatically speed up renewable energy growth and help advance the Biden administration’s zero-carbon electricity goals.
The agency launched a rulemaking on high-voltage transmission planning — a topic FERC has not addressed holistically in 10 years. President Biden has called for passing a clean electricity standard that would mandate that electric utilities generate all their power from carbon-free resources by 2035, a goal some analysts say could not be achieved without a massive expansion in transmission infrastructure needed to connect far-flung wind and solar farms to hubs of electricity demand.
“The grid is the biggest constraint to large-scale renewable deployment, and FERC has the most authority of anybody to do something about it,” said Rob Gramlich, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, a nonprofit coalition. “If they use their authority in the right way, they can make a huge impact on both the resilience of the power system, but also clean energy integration.”
Even though FERC did not announce any specific policy changes, clean energy advocates said the agency’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking issued at a monthly meeting yesterday could lead to reforms that are critical for reaching a carbon-free electric grid. FERC said it is seeking comments about how it could change or enhance existing transmission regulations to support the build-out of carbon-free resources."
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