The US government has announced plans to upgrade America’s power infrastructure, creating jobs, increasing reliability and combating climate change.

Last week, the White House made announcements that underscore the government’s commitment to accelerating the expansion and modernisation of America’s power infrastructure to build a more reliable electric grid, create good-paying union jobs, and deliver clean energy to American businesses and homeowners.

In particular, the Department of Energy (DoE) is announcing financial tools to help build high-voltage electric transmission lines, and the Department of Transportation (DoT) is issuing guidance that will enable the use of existing rights-of-way to facilitate the siting of transmission lines. An independent analysis, also released last week, confirms the importance of investing in the electricity grid.

The analysis identifies more than 20 major transmission projects that are poised to move forward, potentially creating more than 600,000 transmission-related jobs, and an additional 640,000 jobs from new clean energy generation projects enabled by the new transmission lines.

The announcements reflect the government’s commitment to building a more sustainable and resilient future while tackling the climate crisis and creating jobs. As national climate advisor Gina McCarthy said: “After the Texas transmission debacle this winter, no one can doubt the need to invest in our electric grid. The steps that the DoE and DoT are taking today, when combined with the grid investments outlined in the American Jobs Plan, will turbocharge the building of major new electricity transmission lines that will generate new jobs and power our economy for years to come.”

Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has announced the availability of two critical financing tools that can facilitate the construction of high-voltage transmission lines to enhance the reach, reliability and resilience of electricity and unlock more of the USA’s clean energy resources:

• The Western Area Power Administration transmission infrastructure programme’s $3.25bn fund is open for business and accepting applications that applicants can leverage for project development support and access to low-cost capital for transmission projects that will unlock renewable energy in the west.
• The DoE’s loan programmes office is seeking applications for up to $5bn in loan guarantees to support transmission projects along with transmission projects owned by federally recognised tribal nations or Alaska native corporations. This includes high-voltage direct current (HVDC) systems, transmission to connect offshore wind, and facilities sited along rail and highway routes.

“The DoE is making financing available for projects that improve resilience and expand transmission capacity across the electrical grid, so we can reliably move clean energy from places where it’s produced to places where it’s needed most,” said Granholm. “This is a down payment on our efforts to modernise our transmission nationwide, but we need the American Jobs Plan to complete them. These investments will make our power system more resilient against threats and more reliable as we increase our clean energy capacity, creating thousands of jobs in the process.”

Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the DoT’s commitment to facilitate the use of public highways and other transportation rights-of-way to speed the siting and permitting of transmission lines. To advance this opportunity, the DoT is issuing guidance that will help state DoTs host transmission lines, build renewable energy projects, deploy broadband and support electric vehicle charging along highway rights-of-way. In addition to accelerating the expansion and modernisation of the electric grid and other important services, leveraging these public lands adjacent to transportation systems can create revenue opportunities that could lower state costs, reduce transportation maintenance expenses, cut greenhouse gas and other pollutant emissions, promote energy security and diversity, and foster the creation of local jobs. 

“Our new guidance will help states use their rights-of-way to expand clean energy, lower costs and create good-paying jobs in their communities,” said Buttigieg. “These actions can provide a model for our private partners, like railroads, to do the same.”

Independent analyst the Americans for a Clean Energy Grid issued a report that estimates that with financing and siting tools such as those advanced by the American Jobs Plan, more than 20 transmission projects are positioned to move from an advanced planning stage into construction, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and potentially unlocking around 60,000MW of new clean energy capacity in the USA.

The report estimates that advancing the 22 high-voltage transmission projects it identifies would trigger $33bn in investment and create around 600,000 jobs, including 240,000 direct jobs plus 360,000 indirect and induced jobs. The wind and solar deployment enabled by this investment could create an additional 640,000 jobs, bringing the total job creation benefit to around 1.24 million jobs.

A group of states, companies and advocates also announced the formation of the Grid Investments Advisory Council that is backing the expansion and modernisation of the grid, with a focus on the large-scale deployment of smart grid technologies that will increase capacity while building flexibility and resilience into the national grid.

Chaired by the president of the New York Power Authority, the council includes representatives from the private and public sectors, drawn from all part of the country and representing the electric utility industry, environmental groups, vendors, labour unions and other key stakeholders.