A letter signed by a multi-sector coalition including CTC Global and over 40 other clean energy organizations, environmental groups, developers, manufacturers, labor and consumer groups, and other nonprofits was sent to Congress earlier this month urging robust funding for high-capacity transmission deployment and research through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
As explained by Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, the joint letter highlights the abundance of new research, including DOE’s draft Transmission Needs Study, emphasizing the “pressing need for additional electric transmission infrastructure” in nearly all regions of the country. They state that increased funding for the Grid Deployment Office (GDO), Office of Electricity (OE), and Energy Information Administration (EIA) “is critical to drive substantial clean energy deployment, unleash billions in private investment, create thousands of new jobs, deliver low-cost energy to benefit customers, and substantially reduce emissions.”
“The expansion and modernization of our national power grid is central to meeting our urgent climate and energy security goals,“ the coalition wrote.
In the letter, the organizations encouraged Congress to consider the following:·
· Funding for the GDO to support innovative efforts to address planning and permitting challenges to enable a resilient and reliable electricity system;
· Support for GDO to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors on a route-specific, applicant-driven basis;
· Funding for the OE to help ensure our electric grid is resilient to increasingly severe weather, cyber, and physical attacks;
· Robust investment in the Transmission Reliability and Resilience and Applied Grid Transformation Solutions programs;
· Additional funding for the EIA to upgrade its emissions data dashboard.
