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- Title
The Electric Grid at a Crossroads: A Regional Approach to Siting Transmission Lines.
- Authors
Klass, Alexandra B.
- Abstract
The current regulatory framework for approving long-distance, interstate electric transmission lines does not match the physical aspects of the interstate electric grid, regional electricity markets, or the growing but dispersed renewable energy sources increasingly used to power the grid. Despite the interstate nature of the electric grid and electricity markets, the states have virtually complete authority over the siting and pennitting of interstate transmission lines. Continuing state authority over the development of the interstate transmission grid is puzzling when compared to the nation's network of interstate natural gas pipelines, for which regulatory authority was transferred to the federal government in the 1940s. The question for this Article is whether the history surrounding the transfer of regulatory authority over interstate natural gas pipelines can be instructive in planning for the future of the electric grid. This Article shows that that there was a moment in time in the 1940s when natural gas, which for a century had been limited in its commercial use because of lack of transportation from well sites to cities, became a critical energy resource for the entire nation. At that time, Congress responded by creating a federal regulatory process to build the interstate pipeline network necessary to transport this resource after state regulatory authorities had blocked such pipelines.
- Subjects
UNITED States; ELECTRIC line laws; NATURAL gas pipelines; ELECTRIC power distribution grids; CLEAN energy; ENERGY Policy Act of 2005 (U.S.); REGIONAL transmission organizations (Electric power); ELECTRIC utilities; GOVERNMENT policy
- Publication
U.C. Davis Law Review, 2015, Vol 48, Issue 5, p1895
- ISSN
0197-4564
- Publication type
Article