Overview
Law360 quoted Marc Spitzer in a March 22 article titled "FERC's Grid Incentives Highlight States' Project Power." The article discusses the steps taken by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to coax from states further development of interstate electric transmission lines. According to the article, this underscores the regulatory reality that states make the final call on whether grid projects are actually built and can hold up the infrastructure needed to support new renewable energy projects.
Spitzer, a former FERC commissioner and Arizona utility regulator, cautions that it's not a hard-and-fast rule that transmission projects take longer to approve than pipeline projects. Pipelines are more controversial in some areas, and some states have used what authority they do have — namely, issuing Clean Water Act permits — to stop pipeline projects in their tracks.
"It can be harder to build a two-mile pipeline in New England than a 500-mile 345-kilovolt power line," Spitzer says. "It depends on the facts of the case and the opposition and who is the applicant."
The full article can be read at Law360 (subscription required).
