Hundreds of utilities and solar companies are urging congressional leaders to get serious about permitting and transmission legislation before the November election — partly by appealing to the Republican principle of “energy security.”
“Permitting reform at the federal level and significant transmission system investment are essential to our national energy security,” said Amanda Smith, vice president for external affairs for the renewables arm of utility and power generation company AES Clean Energy.
The firm, along with the Solar Energy Industries Association, helped pen a letter to congressional leaders — Republicans and Democrats — in recent days about the importance of policies to ramp up renewable energy production and transmission.
“There are hundreds of billions of investment dollars that depend on our ability to get clean energy projects sited, permitted and efficiently connected to a modern transmission system,” said SEIA CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Lawmakers in both parties understand the importance of getting new energy infrastructure built quickly and efficiently.”
