“In the 1970s, the game was about stopping things, but for climate change activists today, the game is about building something,” said Peters, who has worked as an environmental lawyer for many years. “My suggestion is, if we get everything out of the way, we will win. Renewable energy will win. And NEPA is way behind.”
NEPA requires the federal government to consider and authorize decisions to include the environmental impacts of its actions before finalizing them. Environmental laws from 50 years ago are already in force Several reformsThis includes efforts under Presidents Biden and Trump to reduce staffing and reduce the size and scope of environmental analyzes conducted under the law. However, bottlenecks remain and the highest level of legal review remains slow to complete. 4 and a half yearson average. Just before Thanksgiving, the House Committee on Natural Resources Advances the SPEED methodThe plan aims to alleviate that congestion by creating environmental review shortcuts, limiting judicial review of final assessments, and preventing current and future presidents from arbitrarily revoking permits, with certain exceptions.
Evans framed the issue in terms of catching up with countries like China in building energy infrastructure. “I've seen how other parts of the world produce energy and produce other things,” Evans said. “We're building something cleaner and more responsible here than anywhere else on Earth.”
Both delegates agreed that the SPEED Act alone cannot solve all of America's energy problems. Peters hinted that other permitting legislation is in the works.
“We want to take the SPEED Act on NEPA reform and tie it in with specific energy reforms, including transmission,” Peters said.
Next, former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner Neil Chatterjee briefed Robb on another regulatory change that could impact the pace of energy infrastructure development. It's a directive from the Department of Energy to FERC to come up with better ways to connect a large new source of power demand, namely data centers, to the grid.
“This issue is all about data centers and AI, but it goes beyond data centers and AI,” Chatterjee said. “This addresses all the pressures we are seeing in terms of demand from the grid: cloud computing and quantum computing, streaming services, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin mining, manufacturing reshoring, vehicle electrification, building electrification, semiconductor manufacturing, and more.”
Chatterjee argued that addressing the increased load to support AI data centers should be a bipartisan challenge. He expressed hope that AI could help bridge the partisan divide.
“We're stuck in a political quagmire where if you're in favor of fossil fuels, you're on the political right, and if you're in favor of clean energy and climate change, you're on the political left,” he said. “I think AI will get us out of this situation.”
In the face of significant increases in electricity demand forecasts, updating and upgrading the power grid to accommodate data centers has become more urgent.
Marsden Hanna, head of energy and dust policy at Google, told Heatmap's Gillian Goodman that the company is looking at transmission technology to connect its data centers to the power grid more quickly.
“We looked at advanced transition technologies, high-performance conductors,” Hanna says. “We think it's an incredibly quick and easy opportunity.”
Advanced transmission technologies, also known as ATT, can help expand the capacity of existing power grids, freeing up space for economy-wide electrification and some of the increased load required for data centers. However, construction of new power lines requires permits, a central issue that panelists continued to discuss repeatedly during the event.
Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the R Street Institute, told Gillian that investors are worried that permits that have already been approved could be revoked. I struggled with Under the Trump administration.
“Half the battle now is not just getting permits and getting the project under construction on time,” Hartman said. “It also allows for persistence.”
This event is made possible by the U.S. Renewable Energy Council's Macrogrid Initiative.
