“There is a strong demand for renewables and emission-free resources, and those resources are going to significantly drive the need for transmission planning and development throughout New York State, and I expect that that’s true throughout a lot of regions of the U.S., given all of the different policy goals and general demand from consumers … for that emissions-free resource to supply their power… I think that that’s really going to drive a lot of transmission needs in the future.” – Zachary Smith, Vice President of System and Resource Planning at New York ISO
“It’s clear to me that we need to move toward a grid of the future that is reliable and flexible enough to withstand our rapidly changing energy landscape” – Neil Chatterjee, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
“Everyone knows that we need additional transmission to ensure that the clean energy transition takes places as cost-effectively and reliably as possible” – Rick Glick, Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
“It may not be possible or cost effective to design the grid to withstand every single type of extreme event that might occur. Striking the right balance for consumers is undoubtedly a complex undertaking, but I believe it is more reasonable for us to consider additional transmission investments as an insurance policy to help reduce the size of disruption and enhance the grid’s ability to bounce back…. There were numerous comments submitted with regard to the role transmission plays in grid resilience and that’s something we’re considering.” – Neil Chatterjee, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
“It is time for us to develop a national transmission plan.” – Jon Wellinghoff, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2009-2013)
“If Congress is serious about wanting a truly clean energy grid across the whole country, you have to tap the middle of the country to get that big bulk of cheap clean energy to keep the lights on and dispatch accordingly.” – Patrick H. Wood III, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2001-2005)
“I would love to have the commission sit down and think about how we can take all these wonderful precedents a step further, a major step further, in terms of promoting a truly national electric transmission policy and a robust grid.” – James Hoecker, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (1997-2001)
“When you look at the resource transformations of the last 20 years since Order 2000, I don’t believe any of those transformations could have been accomplished in the same way without the regional markets and the regional planning and operation of the transmission system.” – Cheryl A. LaFleur, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2014-2015)
“With the phase-out of federal tax incentives and the continued need for additional transmission build-out, renewables will face challenges in the years ahead. But if costs continue to decline and transmission build continues apace, I think we’ll see a lot more wind and solar come online.” – Sam Arons, Senior Lead of Energy and Infrastructure at Google
“GM’s ability to access renewable energy is key to our decisions about where to expand new facilities. It’s essential that transmission planners take the growing corporate demand for renewables into account in the planning process. Expanding and upgrading transmission is critical in helping GM access low-cost renewable energy and meet our commitments.” – Rob Threlkeld, Global Manager of Renewable Energy at General Motors
“If you’re going to do a 100 percent clean energy portfolio — that is really 70 to 80 percent of electric power from renewables — I don’t know how you avoid huge transmission builds,” – Richard Sedano, President at Regulatory Assistance Project
“I don’t see how you have a national clean energy standard without significant federally mandated or incented transmission build cutting across regions of the country.” – Travis Kavulla, R Street Institute
“It’s going to be impossible to build new renewables in Kansas unless we do something with the grid. When California runs the numbers to see what 100% carbon-free looks like, all of those scenarios lean on imported renewables.” – Michael Skelly, Founder at Clean Line Energy Partners LLC
“It’s easier to build solar and wind in the upper Midwest than the Eastern corridor. This is what you’ll need to replace the spinning mass of gas turbines.” – Trey Ward, CEO at Direct Connect
“If you want a shot at 100% carbon-free, you’re simply going to need to transmit solar and wind power from America’s Saudi Arabia of renewables—the Southwest and the Midwest—to the cities.” – Ethan Zindler, Analyst at BloombergNEF
“Substantial investment in new transmission capacity will be needed to allow wind and solar generators to develop projects where the most attractive natural wind and solar resources are located. Barriers to expanding the needed inter-regional and internetwork transmission capacity are being addressed either too slowly or not at all.” –Paul Joskow, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Much more attention needs to be paid to the expansion of transmission networks to support the economic deployment and use of wind and solar resources. An efficient transmission network infrastructure transition requires reforms to current transmission planning, permitting, and financial arrangements that overcome traditional boundaries between transmission networks. Transmission investment has focused historically on reliability and economic needs within transmission system operating regions rather than between the transmission operating regions” –Paul Joskow, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“And what we have to do is focus on the transmission of energy across the country from areas relating to solar and wind. The reason is that they have not, that has not been mastered yet.” – Joe Biden, Former Vice President of the United States and 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate
“[Expanding the transmission system to accommodate more renewables is an] essential component of a reliable and resilient [grid and I expect the grid to get a] good deal [of attention next year].” – Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV)
“If we take away all the noise and just focus on the [market] signal, the reality is that we need new, long-distance transmission lines if we want to keep this transition affordable and if we want to do it on a timeline that’s going to both mitigate climate change and protect public health,” –Melissa Lott, Senior Research Scholar, Center of Global Energy Policy at Columbia University
“The grid is the fundamental infrastructure for the United States. It’s more important that pipelines, transportation, and everything else because everything depends on the grid. So if it ever goes down, there will be enormous difficulty.” – General Wesley Clark, Co-Chair of the National Commission on Grid Resilience
“We’re lucky North America actually has a scale, that the wind is usually blowing somewhere and the sun is usually shining somewhere, and so that no single weather front, even if it shuts down the Midwest, is going to shut down all of the North American continent.” -Bill Gates in How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
“More transmission and natural gas infrastructure is required to improve the resilience of the electric grid. Electric transmission investment must keep pace with the increase in utility scale wind and solar resources, which are generally located outside of major load centers. Transmission investments can also strengthen the ability to wheel power to different load centers improving resilience through redundancy. Many are discussing the merits of a national transmission system similar to the interstate highway system, point-to-point DC lines, and other interconnections. Whatever approaches may ultimately be pursued, few long-haul transmission lines and pipelines are actually being planned and built.” – James B. Robb, President and CEO, North American Electric Reliability Corporation
“We do need the backbone, any part of the vision from the president and from many in the industry – we’re going to need it to be enabled by a substantially stouter transmission grid that will move the resources from where they are to where the people are. And I think that’s probably a nine-figure number. It’s a lot of money. But it’s over time, and it’s quite frankly, as we learned in Texas, when you spend money on transmission you save a lot more than you spend on getting low-cost power into your power system” – Patrick H. Wood III, Former FERC Commissioner (2001-2005)
“We also must get critical electric transmission and other energy grid infrastructure built more quickly. The transmission system is key to integrating more renewables, more clean energy, and more technologies into the grid affordably and reliably.” – Tom Kuhn, President, Edison Electric Institute
“With growing interest in transmission across the country, FERC has a real opportunity to strengthen the transmission planning process. Given the scale of needed investment, it’s also critically important to ensure this new transmission build out is done as cost-effectively as possible.” – Daniel Scripps, Chair, Michigan Public Service Commission
“Benefits of transmission are not in dispute, and there is broad agreement that more investment is needed relatively quickly to meet clean energy, reliability, and resilience goals. Despite this agreement, the pace of transmission development is slow.” – Emily Sanford Fisher, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Senior Vice President, Clean Energy Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
“Electric transmission infrastructure is the backbone of the nation’s energy grid and will be critical in facilitating to continued transition to clean energy…the transmission system helps optimize the energy grid’s performance, reducing congestion, enabling the deployment of new technologies, and enhancing reliability and resiliency.” – Emily Sanford Fisher, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Senior Vice President, Clean Energy Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
“Increased transmission investment is essential to meeting our nation’s and our industry’s clean energy goals. Our members are committed to investing in the energy grid and continuing to make it smarter, cleaner, stronger, more dynamic, and more secure.” – Emily Sanford Fisher, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Senior Vice President, Clean Energy Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
The Macro Grid Initiative
“We need to improve America’s outdated and balkanized electricity transmission system both to compete effectively in the 21st century economy and to properly tackle the climate crisis. A Macro Grid will allow for better integration of low-cost renewable energy, resulting in a more resilient, efficient grid and a dramatic reduction in carbon emissions.” – Gregory Wetstone, President and CEO at ACORE
“Growing and rebuilding our nation’s economy will rely on cleaner, cheaper power to drive American industry and commerce. Transmission infrastructure is key to delivering that power to the industries and communities that need it. APA is proud to be a partner in this effort to expand our electric grids, and to build the advanced power delivery systems on which America can rely.” – Jeffrey Clark, President at Advanced Power Alliance
“The overarching vision of the Macro Grid Initiative – to expand and upgrade the nation’s transmission network – will generate jobs and stimulate economic development, hasten clean energy integration and ultimately, lower energy costs for consumers. Equally important, the Initiative’s effort can help advocate for more strategic planning of transmission infrastructure and encourage leadership and a sense of urgency by national and state policymakers.” – Larry Gasteiger, Executive Director at WIRES
“Emerging economic and policy conditions warrant a massive amount of transmission development in the next couple decades. It will be critical for transmission policy reforms to reduce barriers to development, improve planning processes and squeeze more efficiency out of existing infrastructure. The vision of the Macro Grid Initiative is right on point by aligning transmission development with economic, environmental and consumer outcomes.” -Devin Hartman, Director of Energy and Environmental Policy at R Street Institute
“In this transformative and turbulent period, the nation cannot afford to neglect innovation and investment in a clean, economically efficient, and market-driven energy future. Unless an integrated, inter-regional transmission grid can be established, much of our best renewable energy will remain inaccessible to consumers and industry and the anticipated growth in the use of electricity for transportation will not be met. Overcoming the barriers to siting long-line transmission facilities is a critical task before us and new industry partnerships will be key. We support this “breakthrough” initiative as a refreshing recognition of a frequently unrecognized need.” – Jim Hoecker, Founder at WIRES
“When we think about the clean energy transformation we must make over the next decade, our 100-year old grid certainly isn’t supporting a productive vision. Solar can play a major part in our economic recovery. Infrastructure investments to modernize our grid and support transmission, could help us quickly and securely bring solar energy to communities. This initiative could spur billions of dollars in private development and get us closer to our goal of supplying 20% of U.S. electricity generation from solar by 2030.” – Abigail Ross Hopper, President and CEO at Solar Energy Industries Association
“Fostering a dedicated effort to upgrade and expand on our country’s current transmission infrastructure is the next step in realizing the potential of a majority clean energy grid of the future. An expanded, more sophisticated and technologically advanced grid will better support the modernizations and innovations of the fast-advancing pan-renewable industry. AWEA is proud to stand with our clean energy colleagues on addressing this long-held priority of the wind industry and we applaud Breakthrough Energy for taking on the challenge of solving this ongoing issue that will ultimately lead to providing consumers and businesses with more stable and reliable clean power, benefitting both the environment and American’s wallets.” – Tom Kiernan, CEO at Americans Wind Energy Association
“An essential need for our society is a modernized electric grid to deliver clean, safe and reliable power, particularly as we shift our workplaces from central offices to our homes. A second essential need is to put millions of Americans back to work. Upgrading our nation’s aging and creaky transmission network will address both of these needs, and is one of the best investments we can make right now.” – Ken Kimmel, President at Union of Concerned Scientists
“Significant new transmission infrastructure allows remote and variable resources to serve consumers across wide areas, reducing prices and providing strong resilience benefits to states and communities.”- Ric O’Connell, Executive Director at GridLab
“Building out our grid brings jobs, efficient markets, and cheaper and cleaner power. No individual or company can do this alone. But together with a broad public and policy maker consensus I have no doubt it can and will be done. I’m excited to see ACORE and ACEG’s Macro Grid Initiative take on this important effort.” – Michael Skelly, Founder at Clean Line Energy Partners LLC
“Modernizing our electrical grid and upgrading our nation’s transmission network is an opportunity to create new, good-paying jobs for workers across our nation. Transmission projects generally utilize Project Labor Agreements, which set the ground rules for projects between workers and employers to ensure good wages and safe working conditions. Transforming the grid will ensure we can move cleaner energy throughout our nation and reduce the emissions driving climate change.” – Jason Walsh, Executive Director at BlueGreen Alliance
“A robust, integrated, intercontinental electric transmission grid is essential for this country to decarbonize our electric sector and to enable decarbonization of our transportation sector. Without it, this nation cannot hope to do its part to address the global climate crisis which faces us all. The Macro Grid Initiative, led by ACORE and Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, is critical to the development of such a grid system necessary for a sustainable world.” – Jon Wellinghoff, CEO at GridPolicy
“We learned in the 2000-2001 California/Western power collapse and the 2003 North American power blackout that power markets REQUIRE robust infrastructure. Today, that means strong electrical ties between and across all the power regions. I welcome the refreshed focus on this issue: without a strong national power grid, we won’t come anywhere close to the low-cost, low-carbon grid customers demand — and deserve.” – Patrick H. Wood III, CEO at Hunt Energy Network
“To respond to the challenge of climate change, we need ambitious investments in our electrical grid. Solar, wind and other renewable energy sources are booming, moving us toward a carbon-free future. But we need a way to connect all this clean energy to our homes. Modernizing our outdated transmission network will create jobs, grow our economy – and allow responsibly sited, cleaner energy to thrive.” – Gina McCarthy, President and CEO at NRDC
“Transmission is critical to facilitating a clean energy future. ITC looks forward to working with Americans for a Clean Energy Grid and ACORE to support expanding regional and interregional transmission through the Macro Grid Initiative.” – Nina Plaushin, Vice President of Regulatory & Federal Affairs at ITC Holdings Corp