On May 13, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finalized its transmission planning and cost allocation requirements to unleash clean energy, improve the resilience of the power grid, and improve affordability. These new standards will require utilities to create smart long-term plans that consider all of the benefits that new transmission can provide for customers, like lower energy bills and increased reliability. They also eliminate the financial incentive for major transmission owners to focus on local transmission lines, and encourage those same entities to shift their focus to the larger regional lines that are crucial to a clean energy future.
Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program (ELP) was essential in bringing this rule to fruition; ELP Senior Attorney Justin Vickers was one of the core drafters of comments on the transmission rule, in which we urged several changes to FERC's transmission rule that were ultimately adopted, including ensuring that transmission planners look at a variety of minimum benefits. As the rule is implemented, Sierra Club is engaging with a nationwide coalition of environmental organizations, and ELP attorneys Justin Vickers and Greg Wannier are taking the lead on this implementation process in MISO and SPP respectively. We will continue our advocacy for smart transmission planning throughout the nation once the new transmission planning process is in place.
Transmission is crucial to Sierra Club's mission to retire the existing coal fleet and ensure a rapid transition to clean, cheap, and reliable clean energy alternatives. Improved transmission connectivity will increase access to, and reduce curtailment of, wind and solar resources, and increase competition in a way that will lower prices and promote innovation across the country. It will also enable grid operators to rely on a wider array of resources, from further away, to ensure that the lights stay on in their service territories, which in turn will reduce their reliance on dirty and expensive fossil fuel generators. Right now, many coal and gas plants are being forced to remain online because the regions they serve don't have access to reliable alternatives; more transmission buildout will ease those constrictions and help Sierra Club retire the remaining coal fleet without causing an uncontrolled gas buildout.
In addition to issuing new standards for transmission planning and cost allocation, FERC also finalized a second rule, clarifying its use of federal backstop transmission siting authority in Department of Energy-designated National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. ELP Senior Attorney Greg Wannier was one of the core drafters of the environmental coalition’s comments on the backstop rule. At Sierra Club’s urging, FERC is requiring transmission developers to consult with Tribes and actively consider environmental justice and tribal impacts associated with their projects. This represents a significant improvement in FERC's consultation procedures, but did not go far enough; so we have also submitted a motion for reconsideration in which we urge FERC to increase the tribal and environmental justice consultation requirements so that they more fairly match the landowner consultation requirements.
Transmission buildout can be a win-win for all communities, and a robust planning process is part of that story; but so is community engagement. Sierra Club remains committed to ensuring not just that transmission is built, but that it is built sustainably and fairly, and does not harm communities who are already facing more than their fair share of cost, pollution, and climate impacts from the current system.