The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday opened a 60-day public comment on three potential national interest electric transmission corridor designations, known as NIETCs, which would allow the federal government to support and expedite grid expansion projects in those areas.
The three potential NIETCs were chosen from an initial list of 10, published in May. The remaining areas are: the Lake Erie-Canada Corridor, including parts of Lake Erie and Pennsylvania; the Southwestern Grid Connector Corridor, including parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and a “small portion” of western Oklahoma; and the Tribal Energy Access Corridor, including central parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and five Tribal Reservations.
“A lack of transmission infrastructure can directly contribute to higher electricity prices, more frequent power outages from extreme weather, and longer outages as the grid struggles to come back online,” DOE said. The NIETC process was amended by the 2021 the bipartisan infrastructure law, allowing DOE to identify areas where consumers are harmed, or will be harmed, by a lack of transmission in the area.
Transmission projects located within a NIETC are eligible for federal loans to support development.
Monday’s announcement kicked off a third phase of the designation process, during which DOE will refine geographic boundaries, determine the appropriate level of environmental review for each NIETC, and conduct any environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
“Additionally, DOE is aware of potential impacts to military testing, training, and operations and will continue working with the DoD Military Aviation and Assurance Siting Clearinghouse to address these impacts as these potential NIETCs are further refined in Phase 3,” the agency said.
The three potential NIETCs have been refined and renamed since their initial unveiling in May.
The Lake Erie-Canada corridor would maintain and improve reliability and resilience, and provide interregional connections between Canada and the PJM Interconnection, DOE said. NextEra Energy Transmission’s Lake Erie Connector is one project under development in the area.
The Southwestern Grid Connector Corridor would boost reliability by alleviating congestion, meeting future generation and demand growth, and increasing clean energy integration, DOE said. New transmission in the area would provide cross-interconnection and interregional connections between the Southwest Power Pool and WestConnect regions. NextEra’s Heartland Spirit Connector project and Grid United’s Southline Phase 3 project are both under development in the corridor area, DOE said.
The Tribal Energy Access Corridor would reduce consumer costs, increase clean energy integration, meet future generation and demand growth and facilitate Tribal energy and economic development, DOE said. Transmission under development in the area includes the Transmission and Renewables Interstate Bulk Electric Supply project, which is being developed by the Western Area Power Administration, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Oceti Sakowin Power Authority and three of its member Tribes, IBEW Local 1250 and Steelhead Americas.
For at least some of the seven potential corridor areas not selected, DOE’s decision was seen as a blessing. The initial NIETC list included a potential 780-mile Midwest-Plains corridor in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Missouri.
“Kansans living in the path of this proposed transmission line corridor spoke loud and clear: they do not want the federal government dictating what happens in their backyard,” Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, R, said in a statement. “Kansans should always determine what is built in Kansas, not federal bureaucrats. This proposal represented a dangerous overreach of federal authority.”
Kansas Rep. Tracey Mann, R, said his state “made it clear from the very beginning that we were not interested in the federal government seizing our private land ... I heard countless concerns from Kansans who were displeased with the Department of Energy’s overly vague proposal and the lack of engagement with landowners.”
The potential 645-mile Delta Plains corridor across portions of Arkansas and Oklahoma was also scrapped.
“Good riddance,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a post on X. “Biden’s Department of Energy saw no issue in dangling federal eminent domain over our heads, trampling the private property rights of Oklahomans. Another win for Oklahoma!”
