Sponsors
The bill strengthens interregional transmission planning and grid resilience—reducing outages and supporting lower-carbon power—while creating potential higher costs for ratepayers, added regulatory burdens, and some risk of project delays or legal challenges.
Consumers and grid operators will get more reliable electricity: standardized interregional planning and minimum transfer targets make it easier to move power across regions, reducing outages and speeding restoration during extreme weather, physical incidents, or cyberattacks.
Electricity customers and taxpayers may pay less for wholesale power and have cleaner electricity access because better interregional connections improve access to lower-cost and zero-direct-emissions generation.
Utilities, developers, and local governments will face clearer rules for cost-allocation and project selection, which can speed delivery of interregional projects and reduce disputes over who pays for transmission.
Ratepayers and utilities may face higher costs if building new interregional transmission to meet federal minimums requires large investments that get passed through to customers.
Local governments and utilities could see locally prioritized projects delayed because plans must be redesigned to meet uniform federal calculation methods and minimum standards for interregional transfers.
Planning entities and FERC will face additional annual reporting and compliance tasks, increasing administrative overhead that could be passed on to consumers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 22, 2025 by Sean Casten · Last progress January 22, 2025
Directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to create rules requiring adjacent transmission planning regions to use the same method to calculate how much power they can transfer between each other and to set minimum interregional transfer capability levels to keep the grid reliable during extreme weather, physical, or cyber events. It requires transmission planning entities to file approved interregional project plans and cost-allocation proposals to meet those minimum transfer levels, and it mandates regular reporting on implementation. Sets firm timelines: FERC must issue regulations within 24 months, planning entities must file plans within 3 years (and update every 5 years), and FERC must publish implementation reports starting within 48 months of the regulations and then annually. The law also defines key terms (including a list of greenhouse gases and categories of transmission benefits) and protects cyberattack-related security information from public disclosure.