Economist and renewables-enabling transmission policy influencer Rob Gramlich gives high marks to the past year's efforts by the Biden Administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in terms of moving the needle on policy restraints that have for years stymied development of necessary electricity transmission infrastructure nationally. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the massive infrastructure bill that Congress approved on a bipartisan basis, contains significant provisions that buttress FERC's transmission siting authority while funding development of new and much-needed reliability-enhancing transmission infrastructure and technology. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy has moved quickly to build on that new authority, launching the Build a Better Grid Initiative in an effort to jumpstart the transmission-enhancement provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Gramlich also details provisions in the Build Back Better bill, now stalled in Congress, that would further the country's efforts to enhance the power grid and drive clean energy development in response to the climate change emergency.
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