Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today cheered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) strong new rule requiring the nation’s transmission providers to better plan for and build-out our electric power grid to increase the grid’s reliability and climate resiliency.
“America’s aging power grid is being been pushed to the limit by record-breaking demand and extreme weather events. Without decisive action, our power grid will not be able to reliably and affordably serve our growing clean energy economy,” said Whitehouse. “FERC’s latest rule should be a big boost for transmission development, and I applaud the Commission for its forward-looking approach in this final rule.”
Whitehouse has long spearheaded policies to position America as a leader in the clean energy economy and protect the country from the consequences of climate change. Whitehouse’s bicameral SITE Act would improve the process of constructing long range, inter-regional high voltage transmission lines throughout the United States to connect and upgrade regional grids. In January, Whitehouse released a discussion draft of his COLLABORATE Act, legislation that would establish a holistic process for offshore wind transmission, improve permitting, coordination, and cooperation between agencies and with developers and stakeholders on offshore wind, and boost support for fisheries and other potentially affected stakeholders.
