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Washington Examiner: Big problem facing the Green New Deal: A lack of power lines to deliver wind and solar

Posted by Josh Siegel on Mar 20, 2019

This piece by the Washington Examiner discusses how the Green New Deal is all but impractical without addressing how critical transmission lines are to its implementation. The AEE perspective is given by Managing Director and General Counsel Jeff Dennis. See excerpts below and the entire Washington Examiner story here:

The Green New Deal would require an overhaul of the transmission lines that deliver wind and solar power, a major logistical obstacle to the progressive plan for radically revamping the economy to address climate change.

The Green New Deal's plan to ramp up federal funding for wind and solar to reach 100 percent renewable or clean electricity won't be sufficient without addressing transmission lines, which often meet political opposition at the local, not federal, level.

The Green New Deal resolution proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., does not explicitly mention transmission lines, although it does call generally for major repairs and upgrades to the nation’s infrastructure… 

Transmission lines are critical to transporting electricity from places, typically rural areas, that have an abundance of wind or solar to consumers in population centers that don’t generate significant renewable electricity.

“There are major areas of the country where we have significant wind and solar resources that cannot reach market,” said Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel of Advanced Energy Economy

See the complete Washington Examiner story here.

Topics: United In The News