Dupage Policy Journal

Washington D.C. – On April 27, 2023, the Co-Chairs of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) Clean Energy Deployment Task Force, Reps. Sean Casten (IL) and Mike Levin (CA), released a discussion draft of the Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration (CETA) Act. This bill aims to be a holistic approach at addressing the bottlenecks that exist in deploying clean energy and electricity transmission at the speed necessary to address the climate crisis, while also ensuring affected communities have their voices heard as part of the permitting process.

The text of the discussion draft can be found here.

This discussion draft has been released with the intent of soliciting feedback to further improve the bill before it is formally introduced in the House.

“There are nearly 2000 gigawatts of clean cheap energy stuck in the queue that we can’t currently connect to consumers,” said Rep. Sean Casten. “That’s almost twice the total US electric generating capacity that could cut our bills and clean up our air. The data is overwhelmingly clear: without reforming the transmission permitting and siting processes, we will not meet our goals. The current process is arduous, expensive, and lined with bureaucratic red tape. The Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act of 2023 implements the necessary reforms to fully realize the consumer savings and clean energy benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act.”

“In order to achieve the full emissions reduction potential from the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. must more than double our historic rate of transmission expansion and invest in renewable energy generation," said Rep. Mike Levin. "Through our Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act of 2023, we are developing policies to ensure that our grid is up to the task by expanding high-capacity transmission, reforming the interconnection process, enhancing community engagement, and building on the $1 billion dollars we secured in the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure federal agencies have the resources and processes to conduct efficient environmental reviews. We look forward to continuing our conversations with colleagues to build support for this bill and get it through the legislative process.”

“The United States needs to substantially build-out the electric transmission system in order to improve grid reliability, facilitate the ongoing transition to our clean energy future, and reduce consumers’ electricity costs.  The Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act would remove existing barriers that inhibit much-needed investment in the grid. I urge Congress to enact this legislation as soon as possible.” – Richard Glick, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chair (2021-2023), Commissioner (2017-2021)

“The Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act takes the steps needed to deliver clean and cheap energy to American consumers while also empowering those consumers to help with our clean energy transition. The Act reforms the transmission siting and deployment process to enable renewable development supported in the Inflation Reduction Act. And it gives consumers an opportunity to partner in all states with aggregators of consumer behind-the-meter energy resources, like demand response, to support that renewable development while keeping energy prices low." – Jon Wellinghoff, FERC Chair (2009-2013)

“Rapidly increasing the speed of transmission deployment is essential to expanding access to cleaner, affordable, more reliable energy. The Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act gives FERC the authority to modernize the US electric grid, enables the expansion of existing electric transmission capacity through new technologies, and provides the United States with an efficient path to a clean energy economy.” – Nora Mead Brownell, FERC Commissioner (2001-2006)

BACKGROUND

The bill builds on SEEC’s Policy Brief on Permitting Reform for the Clean Energy Future released in November 2022, by including the bills listed in that report, while also incorporating other pieces of legislation and new concepts as well.

You can find a section-by-section description of the bill here.

Language from the following bills were included as part of this discussion draft:

• SITE Act (H.R. 1766 in the 118th Congress) – Rep. Mike Quigley
• A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice For All Act (H.R. 1705 in the 118th Congress) – Rep. Raúl Grijalva
• Enhancing Electric Grid Resilience Act (H.R. 9326 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Kathy Castor
• Efficient Grid Interconnection Act (H.R. 4027 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Kathy Castor
• Community Solar Consumer Choice Act (H.R. 2764 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Kathy Castor
• Offshore Energy Modernization Act (H.R. 9641 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Paul Tonko
• Public Land Renewable Energy Deployment Act (H.R. 178 in the 118th Congress) – Rep. Mike Levin
• Reinforcing the Grid Against Extreme Weather Act (H.R. 8303 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Sean Casten
• Energy PRICE Act (H.R. 4556 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Sean Casten
• Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act (H.R. 2678 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Sean Casten
• REDUCE Act (H.R. 8738 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Sean Casten
• Empowering RTO Stakeholders Act (H.R. 8302 in the 117th Congress) – Rep. Sean Casten

Original source can be found here.