Powering Up Affordability with Clean Energy Solutions

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:01:26]Thank you all for joining. My name is Nick Hos and I work on federal campaigns with EDF Action, advocacy partner of the Environmental Defense Fund. Our conversation today is about the intersection of clean energy, affordability, reliability, and resilience, and why expanding the energy is an exciting crossroads to for the country right now. We'll talk about the benefits of clean energy for our wallets, our infrastructure, and our economy. We'll also discuss the barriers standing in the way of bringing more affordable energy online and how the Energy Bills Relief Act aims to address those challenges.

[00:02:07]The reality is that increasingly the cheapest form of new electricity on the market today are also some of the cleanest. Wind and solar are now among the lowest cost sources of power available. And unlike fossil fuels, they aren't subject to the volatile global price swings that can send energy bills skyrocketing overnight. At a time when electricity demand is rapidly increasing, driven in part by growth of data centers and new technologies, the United States needs affordable energy more than ever.

[00:02:42]You don't need to read the news to know that families across the country are struggling with rising utility bills.

[00:02:48]Extreme weather events fueled by climate change are becoming more frequent and severe, damaging infrastructure, disrupting power systems, and contributing to blackouts and reliability challenges. Aging transmission systems and an outdated grid are making it harder and more expensive to deliver electricity where it's needed most. Despite broad public support for clean energy, we're seeing politically driven efforts to block clean energy projects across the country. The Trump administration and some congressional Republicans have promoted policies that cut clean energy tax credits, cancel projects that are already in development, and invest in older, more expensive energy sources like coal, even as energy prices continue to rise. By obstructing new clean energy deployment, they are effectively driving up costs for American families and businesses.

[00:03:46]But there's good news. The good news is that we already have the tools to meet at this moment. We're expanding homegrown clean energy and it can strengthen reliability and reduce the economic volatility that comes with dependence on fossil fuels. So, we have an exciting program ahead and if you stay with us until the end, you'll hear from a very special guest, Congressman Sean Casten, sponsor of the Energy Bills Relief Act and legislation we'll be discussing today.

[00:04:15]Next, I'll turn it over to EDF's director and lead council of US clean energy, Ted Kelly. As director and lead counsel, Ted represents EDF in regulatory proceedings related to wholesale electric and gas markets and regulation of electric and gas utilities. And we'll take a closer look at some of the obstacles preventing clean energy expansion and why they matter for affordability and reliability. After that, we'll discuss what policies like the Energy Bills Relief Act are designed to do about them. Ted, over to you.

[00:04:51]>> Thanks, Zick. And, uh, good afternoon or good evening all. Uh, first, let's spend a couple minutes talking about how our energy system works and learn about some of the infrastructure that's necessary to deliver electricity to our homes and businesses. America's energy system is made up of a network of power plants, transmission lines, substations, and local distribution systems that work together to deliver electricity to where it's needed. Electricity is generated at power plants using sources like natural gas and coal and increasingly wind and solar. Once that electricity is produced, it has to travel sometimes hundreds of miles to reach customers.

[00:05:27]That's where transmission infrastructure comes in. High voltage transmission lines like you might see along the highways carry large amounts of electricity across long distances from where energy is generated to population centers. Substations along the way help step electricity down to lower voltages and manage the flow of power across the grid. From there, local distribution lines, the poles and wires people see in their neighborhoods and connected to their houses and apartments, deliver electricity directly to homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses. The electric grid must constantly balance supply and demand is in real time. If too little electricity is available, blackouts can occur. Um, and when infrastructure is damaged by storms, heat waves, wildfires, or flooding, reliability suffers and repairs can be extremely costly. Today, America's grid is under growing pressure, largely due to increased demand. While local solutions like rooftop solar and household batteries, smart thermostats, and energy efficiency are helping us meet that demand, we also know that more large-scale clean energy is needed. But our outdated system was not built to handle the scale or variety of energy needed today. Here are some of the primary issues. First of all, insufficient transmission. The United States has enormous renewable energy potential. There is enough wind capacity in the Great Plains, enough solar potential in the southeast, west, and across rooftops nationwide, and enough offshore wind potential along all of our coasts to generate far more electricity than the country currently uses. The challenge is that these resources are often located far from the cities and industries that need that power. And the US doesn't have enough high-capacity transmission lines to move clean energy from where it's generated to where it's needed. and we haven't been expanding our transmission system quickly enough or with enough focus toward meeting modern needs. Uh this chart here shows that if anything, our our transmission system growth has been slower in recent years rather than faster as it needs to be. Individual new transmission lines can serve as extension cords to help get clean power plugged in more quickly and move it to where we need it. But in the long term, it's even more important to build a strong national network of transmission lines that will support support sharing of clean energy across the country like rewiring our house to meet the current needs instead of just relying on extension cords as a solution. This is especially important because the transmission system that we do have in place is really aging. A large share of US transmission infrastructure was built in the 60s and 70s when power systems were designed primarily around large fossil fuel plants located relatively close to where electricity is consumed. These older lines are making our energy system increasingly vulnerable to bad weather and natural disasters subject to extreme weather damage, outages, reliability issues, and costly repairs. This combination compared com combined with the increased demand that we're seeing for electricity now causes interconnection backlogs meaning that new clean energy projects often take years to connect to the grid.

[00:08:21]Modernizing and expanding transmission infrastructure is essential for improving reliability and meeting growing electric demand in the years ahead. The next key uh thing to focus on is grid reliability. If transmission lines are one part of our energy system, the grid is how we describe that whole system of uh infrastructure generating, moving and delivering electricity from power plants to your home. There are similar challenges here to what I just discussed on transmission lines specifically. Much of the grid, including substations, transformers, and local distribution systems, is decades old and increasingly expensive to maintain. Older equipment is more vulnerable to failures and outages, carries greater wildfire risks, and extreme weather puts additional pressure on that already vulnerable system. All these factors lead to damaged infrastructure and the expensive repairs necessary to fix the infrastructure, often get passed on to the customer through utility bills. Many grid systems also still rely on outdated technology that limits efficiency and flexibility.

[00:09:18]This also means the grid has difficulty integrating multiple sources of energy, storing that energy, and managing fluctuating supply and demand.

[00:09:25]Essentially, we're trying to run a 21st century energy system on a 20th century grid. There are many new modern technologies that can better manage electricity flows, integrate renewables, respond to outages faster, and increase the capacity of even existing transmission lines in cases where it's going to take some time to build our system up. Another key challenge here is the permitting process. Building new clean energy projects and upgrading our energy infrastructure often requires multiple approvals across the federal, state, and local governments. Permitting is an important part of the process. It not only ensures that new projects will be built safely and responsibility, but also that nearby communities have the opportunity to provide in input and that ecosystems and other environmental impacts are taken into consideration.

[00:10:09]However, inefficiencies in the permitting system can dramat drastically and unnecessarily slow down transmission and clean energy projects. The permitting system today is one of the primary bottlenecks slowing clean energy expansion and grid modernization. A single transmission line may cross multiple states, counties, and towns and cities, each with its own permitting permitting requirements and approval timelines, leading to a process that is often fragmented, unpredictable, and understaffed. Projects that are fully funded and ready to be built can be solved for years, increasing cost, and slowing progress. As you see in this chart, a process that used to take around two years on average now takes an average of five years. Uh, with some parts of the country it even being significantly more than that. To make matters worse, the Trump administration has increasingly used permitting processes in bad faith to slow, block, or increase uncertainty around clean energy projects. We've seen that most often in relation to federal permits for offshore wind where many previously approved offshore wind projects have been rejected or had their permits reopened by the administration. Um you this chart further shows that project developers site permitting issues including local ordinances and zoning um as one of the top causes of delays or cancellation as well as grid interconnection issues which relates to both the shortage of transmission we already discussed as well fact that those transmission uh projects as well need to go through a permitting process.

[00:11:31]It also shows community opposition as an important cause of cancellation uh which really reflects the importance of developers engaging with communities early and in good faith. Permitting reform requires striking a balance between maintaining strong environmental and community protections while also building critical infrastructure and clean energy projects quickly enough to meet rising electric demand, strengthen grid reliability, and lower costs. And I'll turn it back over to Nick uh to talk about uh some of the Ebra uh some of the ways that the Energy Bills Relief Act addresses that.

[00:12:02]>> Thanks, Ted, for that insightful approach to grid reliability and transmission. We know these tools can unlock energy solutions nationwide if the right legislation is in place. And that's why next we will be hearing about the types of legislation ready to help projects nationwide bring cost down to consumers. As always, I'm inspired by our experts here at EDF and finding the ways that work. And speaking to this will be Veronica Uno who represents EDF in federal and state regulatory proceedings related to energy transmission and clean energy. Her areas of expertise include transmission interconnection clean energy polity policy utility regulation and wholesale electricity markets. Over to you Veronica.

[00:12:52]>> Thanks Nick. Good evening everyone. So, we heard Ted outline the bottlenecks to clean energy expansion. But thankfully, with the leadership of Representatives Casten and Levan, there is a bill in Congress aimed to tackle these challenges, lower our emissions, and put more money in Americans pockets. The proposed energy bills relief act is designed to lower electricity costs by modernizing the US power grid, speeding the deployment of new energy infrastructure, and providing direct and immediate relief to consumers. A major focus of that bill is fixing three connected problems. Slow permitting, weak grid reliability, and inadequate transmission capacity. The bill aims to reduce delays that slow clean energy and transmission projects by doing four things. The first is expediting the process for connecting new power sources to the grid. This is often known as interconnection reform. The second is streamlining permitting for projects like community solar. Third, giving federal regulators like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stronger authority to approve major and nationally important transmission lines.

[00:14:03]and fourth, allowing federal agencies to help process permits faster for renewable projects. The bill itself treats grid reliability as a national infrastructure issue, especially as extreme weather, rising electricity demand, and aging infrastructure strain the system. Some of the key reliability measures in the bill include improving connections across regions so that neighboring grids can support one another during emergencies, encouraging stronger interreional transmission planning, supporting technologies that allow existing transmission lines to carry more electricity, addressing shortages of critical grid equipment like transformers, and reducing wildfire risks tied to transmission infrastructure. You know, transmission is one of the bill's biggest priorities because in many parts of the country, we don't have enough transmission capacity to move clean electricity from where it's generated to where it's needed. So, this act proposes to create tax incentives for new transmission infrastructure. Improve cost sharing rules so that the costs of large transmission projects are distributed based on who benefits. expand high voltage interstate transmission capacity and offshore transmission development and invest in advanced grid enhancing technologies that can move electricity over existing lines. All of these reforms aim to address the underlying structural challenges that increase costs and prohibit cheaper energy resources like wind and solar from coming online. But the energy bills relief act also includes several more immediate cost-saving measures, including restoring the clean energy and home efficiency tax credits that were cancelled by President Trump's big beautiful bill. And these are the tax credits that would have helped families and businesses invest in clean energy, home weatherization, and efficiency upgrades. The bill also provides direct financial assistance to families struggling to pay their energy bills.

[00:16:11]The bill also incentivizes utility providers to lower household costs and prevent large electricity users like data centers from shifting costs onto households. So at its core, this bill aims to build an energy system that is more affordable, more reliable, and aligned with modern-day needs, all while tackling one of the largest threats, climate change. With over 150 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, this bill reflects a broad range of support from members of Congress and their constituents and underscores both the nationwide need for this legislation and the diverse coalition behind it. So, in this next section, we'll hear from the architect of this historic legislation.

[00:17:01]>> Thanks, Veronica. As you mentioned, we'll be hearing a short recorded message from Representative Sean Casten from Illinois's sixth district. As a scientist, clean energy entrepreneur, and now a member of the Congress representing the western suburbs of Chicago, Congressman Sean Casten has dedicated his life to fighting climate change. Rep. Casten draws upon his previous private sector experience in Congress to craft market-based solutions to reduce emissions while creating jobs and spurring economic growth.

[00:17:32]The energy bill's relief act legislation was introduced in the US House of Representatives by Sean Casten and Representative Mike Leaven. And as Veronica said, the bill has now the support of a broad range of members who come from all energy issues with different districts and different lens and now has almost 150 co-sponsors. We are excited to hear about the work he is doing with constituents on making sure our energy bills are affordable for all Americans.

[00:18:04]My friends at EDF, Congressman Sean Casten here. Um, look, let me just start with the obvious. Energy is too damn expensive right now and the planet is warming way too fast. Both of those have the exact same cause. namely an energy policy in the United States that has always put the interests of consumers ahead of the interest of producers that has has directly incentivized the digging, drilling, refining, distribution and pollution of expensive sources at the expense of free energy sources that are available to everybody.

[00:18:41]Which means that we pollute more than we have to and we spend more money than we have to. Um, we don't have to have it that way. We can fix that. And what Mike Leaven and I have done through our energy bills relief act is introduced a piece of legislation that would overhaul the way our energy policy works. Would overhaul the way that we permit assets so that energy producers could now, wait for it, this is a crazy idea, actually profit when they lower your costs instead of treating that as a zero sum game. um have an incentive to go and accelerate your state's realization of their RPS goals, partly for environmental reasons, but also because that leaves more money in your wallet.

[00:19:18]Um I'm really happy to announce that we're up to 150 Democratic co-sponsors, maybe even over 150 by the time you hear this. Um which is great. We are very well positioned going into the next Congress, but our work isn't done yet.

[00:19:32]So my ask of you all review the bill.

[00:19:35]Um, if you've got issues, let us know.

[00:19:37]But educate people on it. Educate your neighbors. Let let them know that we don't have to choose between the planet we leave for the next generation and how much money we leave in the wallets of our generation. We can do both. Um, and if your member of Congress hasn't supported, call them up. Get them on.

[00:19:55]Um, we need to get this done. We need to get it done yesterday. There is no conflict. We just have to be absolutely unambiguous about what our priorities are. I know you share those priorities and appreciate all your help. Thank you.

[00:20:09]>> Thank you, Repasten for sharing that important message. We need bold solutions to our toughest energy challenges and the energy bills relief act is a comprehensive approach that can save hardworking families money and upgrade our grid to meet the challenges we face today. Now, the part where we need you, the viewer. We have a few minutes and would love participants to you use their voices to build support for the energy bills relief act. You'll see in the chat uh a link um to send a message to your member of Congress urging them to co-sponsor this pivotal legislation. And if you're interested in sharing with others in your community, feel free. The more folks we can get to voice their support to their elected officials now, the better position it puts us all in move on these issues when we're able to elect climate majority in Congress. Again, please take a moment to send a message to your representative using the link below. It only takes one second.

[00:21:16]While folks are filling out those call to actions, uh we're going to open up the section to allow our audience across several platforms to ask our guest speakers any questions they may have around grid transmission and energy affordability. So, at this time, if you haven't entered a question in the chat yet, feel free to do so now and we should be able to answer a couple of the audience questions and there are lots of questions in the chat. Uh, so I will start with the top of the list which is what are models for communities getting involved in transmission development?

[00:22:01]>> That's a great question. I recommend reviewing EDF's newest report on community benefit agreements beyond the wires. This report includes several successful case studies of transmission projects with community benefit agreements. And the report highlights a clear trend. The most successful projects treat communities as partners, not obstacles.

[00:22:26]>> Awesome. Thanks, Veronica. and that link will also be in the chat to access that report.

[00:22:33]Um the second question we have is let's see here is solar and wind development specifically offshore wind actually slowing.

[00:22:46]So despite the challenges I described earlier, we have seen continued progress in getting clean energy built and online, including five new offshore wind projects being finished this year and next year that despite attacks from the federal government are close to completion and are already providing partial energy to the grid.

[00:23:03]Collectively, they'll provide enough energy to power more than 2.5 million homes by the time they're complete next year. In fact, 2025 set a record for the amount of new solar and wind projects built. And we expect to see that record tied or maybe even exceeded in 2026. And we're also building more batteries than ever, which helps clean energy provide power around the clock. But it's critical to look for solutions like the Energy Bills Relief Act to ensure that this administration's policies and the other barriers we talked about don't cut off that progress.

[00:23:34]>> That was a good question. And we have another good question that just came in.

[00:23:39]uh says, "I'm concerned about data center development. How can transmission lines reinforce the reliability of the grid?"

[00:23:47]>> Oh, great question. A lot of people are concerned about data center development right now. So, transmission can improve resiliency across regions of the United States. This means that when one region is experiencing a severe weather ex event, for example, a severe heat wave, grid operators can pull power from a nearby region to assist their neighbor and keep cost low, keep the lights on and air conditioners running for everyone, and most importantly, save lives.

[00:24:19]>> Awesome.

[00:24:21]Just going through the chat here. Here's a good one. Can this bill really pass?

[00:24:32]>> It's a good question. Um, so we we don't expect uh E abra to be taken up or become law in the near term in this in this Congress with the Republican majority or even necessarily while we still need a Republican president's signature. But legislation like ABRA does really important work to set the landscape for a future Congress that is more interested in working to promote clean energy solutions and also portions of it could inform and be included in other legislation in the nearer term.

[00:24:59]This bill sends an important signal that Democrats in the House care deeply about energy affordability and see clean energy as a solution and are really working towards the concrete ideas that can make that happen.

[00:25:12]>> Awesome.

[00:25:14]Um, let's see here. Lots of great questions in the chat. I think we have time for one or maybe two more. Um, someone asked, "I'm worried about the current administrations forcing coal plants to stay open like the Campbell plant in Michigan even when they want to close." Ted, Veronica, can you comment on that?

[00:25:37]>> Yeah, so that's been a really uh terrible illegal policy of the Trump administration. um more than I think at least six coal plants that were scheduled to retire last year have been required to stay open because of that.

[00:25:49]Um and they're causing uh you know really significant pollution that's harming the health of local residents.

[00:25:55]Um as well as uh having enormous costs.

[00:25:57]The plant uh the Campo plant in Michigan alone um is imposing costs of $180 million so far on rate payers in the region. That's more than $600,000 a day to keep open this plant that's supposed to be retired by now. um Environmental Defense Fund along with other some other uh environmental advocates um and also some of the states involved have sued the Trump administration to try to reverse that unlawful policy and we just had an oral argument on that in court in DC two weeks ago. So, we're really hopeful that we'll get a decision soon um that will uh that will reverse these policies and and allow those plants require those plants to actually retire as they were scheduled to.

[00:26:40]Sounds good. Um, we have one question that was asking about the bill number.

[00:26:45]It's HR7977.

[00:26:48]That's the bill number for the um, inquisitive person that asked that question. I didn't know that off the top of my head either. So, I'm I'm glad you asked it. Um, and at that time I'll uh I'll take a moment to just again thank you to our amazing panel of experts, Ted Kelly and Veronica Unono and you as the viewer for taking the time to learn about the energy bills relief act grid transmission and energy affordability.

[00:27:15]It's no secret that climate progress has been a challenge in our current political landscape. But our goal is to gather momentum and support in communities across the country so we can be ready to move swiftly when we have a more favorable Congress as soon as even this fall. We have several resources if you're interested in learning more about Power in the Grid in the chat. We hope you have a great great evening. Thanks again.