Killed by voters, a controversial energy megaproject may rise from the dead
Killed by voters, a controversial energy megaproject may rise from the dead
Another bend in the long, winding road to a decarbonized Northeastern grid.
Killed by voters, a controversial energy megaproject may rise from the dead
Greetings from Astoria, Queens, where my mimosa pudica, which got too close to a hot radiator last winter and almost died, just bloomed for the first time this year. It was just one little pink pompom, but sitting here now, I can count at least 10 more ready to burst open in the coming days. Really nice.
Before we get to the important stuff – have any of you been to Norway? My wife and I are headed to Oslo at the end of this week for a brief vacation. We have never been. The list of essential restaurants and museums we put together is already lengthy, but endorsements and new suggestions are welcome. We will also be getting out of Oslo for a bit, so please share any tips you might have in the surrounding area.
Now that I’m done abusing your time, onto the fun stuff: Transmission lines. I’m writing today to let you know there’s fresh drama afoot in the long, twisting saga of connecting the U.S. Northeast with Canada’s rich hydroelectric resources.
As veteran Hot Tip subscribers may remember, Maine voters last year blocked construction of a high-voltage line through which Massachusetts would buy power from Québec’s completely decarbonized grid.
Transmission is desperately needed to get the U.S. grid off fossil fuels. As more solar and wind come online, grid operators need more capacity to move electricity from where it's plentiful to where it's needed. They also need “dispatchable” resources for when the sky is dark and air is still. The $1 billion New England Clean Energy Connect was supposed to provide both, without the emissions that come from the gas-fired power plants that usually provide backup generation across the U.S.
But partway through construction, Maine held a referendum giving voters the right to retroactively yank the project’s permits.
Seeing the 24/7 availability of Hydro-Québec’s fleet of dams as a threat, gas companies poured money into the race. Citing the Canadian government-owned utility’s vile history of stealing land from Québec’s First Nations, and the ecological toll new dams have historically taken, environmentalists and progressives backed them up. Combined, those forces persuaded 60% of voters last November to approve a ballot measure that retroactively yanked the transmission line’s permits.
On Tuesday, Maine’s high court ruled that the retroactive measure may have violated developers’ right to build something that had already won approval. But the Supreme Judicial Court remanded the case to a lower court to hash out what comes next.
Even if the NECEC gets built, experts tell me the U.S. still has big transmission problems that recent climate reforms haven’t fixed.
While the Inflation Reduction Act will likely increase demand for transmission lines, the final deal eliminated a provision from the earlier Build Back Better bill to fund transmission investments with the same kind of federal tax credit that wind and solar developers get.
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Biden signed last fall included funding for transmission. Dollar figures vary wildly online. But if you only count things that actually help build transmission capacity, it only comes out to between $5 billion and $10 billion – far from transformational.
The Midwest grid operator’s announcement of $10 billion to build 18 new transmission lines could be promising insofar as the regional plan could get more buy-in from the state regulators who will ultimately decide on permitting. But that’s just one region. And on the national level, the details of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s transmission reform rule have yet to be finalized.
As always, there’s some more detail in the actual story on HuffPost, which I co-authored with HuffPost’s man in Maine (and my pal) Chris D’Angelo. Read it here.
In other news:
As wheat prices soar, Oz sees a bumper crop. After three straight drought years when wheat production fell to as low as 14.4 million metric tons, Australia is on track to post three consecutive years with wheat crops of 31 million tons or higher. World Grain
“Do not drink the water.” Raw, untreated water is flowing through nearly 200,000 people’s taps in Jackson, Mississippi, where the water system’s failures have become a major crisis. The Mississippi Free Press
The U.S. nets another big battery factory. Honda and LG Energy are going to build a $4 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Ohio. The Wall Street Journal
Climate whiplash brings mayhem. "One-third of Pakistan is underwater. 33 million are affected. Please tell me how that is not catastrophic. That is the size of a small country." HuffPost
Colorado River water cuts are coming to Western states. “If we don’t act in 2023...what we might have to do in 2024 is going to even be exponentially greater and more difficult to do.” The Nevada Independent
Thank you for reading. Here’s something nice.