30 Sep
WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 30, 2026) — Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG), a coalition of 75+ business, labor, consumer and environmental groups, today welcomed the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, the permitting bill introduced by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). Its transmission provisions would be among the most significant grid reforms in decades and a major step toward the electric grid America needs to lower energy costs and keep the lights on.
Reaching this point took months of sustained work by the leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works and Energy and Natural Resources committees and their staffs, along with the administration.
“For too long, an aging and fragmented grid has stood between American families and businesses and the affordable, reliable power they deserve,” said Patrick Hughes, President of the ACEG Board of Directors. “This bill puts the solution, a stronger and better-connected transmission system, at the center of the conversation, and it takes on the reforms that matter most. We’re especially encouraged by its commitment to planning the grid across regions and to making sure the costs of new lines follow the benefits they deliver. We greatly appreciate the leadership Senators Capito, Whitehouse, Lee and Heinrich have shown in working across the aisle to bring this within reach. Now Congress needs to finish the job this year, while the window is still open.”
Much of America’s transmission system was built decades ago, for a very different economy. Demand is climbing, bills are rising, and extreme weather is testing the grid like never before. Expanding and connecting the nation’s transmission system is among the cheapest and fastest ways to relieve pressure on consumers. It moves lower-cost power to where it’s needed and keeps the lights on when the weather turns.
The bill gets the fundamentals right, settling up front the questions that otherwise stall projects for years:
- It would require regional and interregional transmission planning, so regions can support one another when the grid is under strain.
- It would ensure costs follow the benefits a line actually delivers, from improved reliability to access to lower-cost power, and protect customers from paying for lines that don’t benefit them.
- It would strengthen the federal backstop for siting major interstate lines, with clear standards for approval and state and federal reviews running side by side, while preserving the role of states and giving affected landowners a voice.
- It would require utilities to deploy advanced transmission technologies wherever they’re cost-effective, getting more out of the existing grid while new lines are built.
- It would protect households as demand grows, requiring the largest new electricity users to pay their fair share of the costs of serving them, and speed up connecting new power supplies to the grid.
The package’s broader permitting reforms matter for transmission, too. Major lines typically need approvals from several federal agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. The bill would make FERC the lead agency coordinating those reviews and focus and shorten Clean Water Act reviews for interstate lines. It would also clear the way for upgrades within existing rights of way, like reconductoring and grid-enhancing technologies, without a new federal environmental review.
Faster, more predictable federal reviews could do as much to get new lines built as the transmission provisions themselves. Taken together, this package is a serious opportunity to build the grid America needs, and ACEG urges members of both parties to support it and see it signed into law this year.
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About Americans for a Clean Energy Grid: Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG) is a nonprofit, broad-based public interest advocacy coalition focused on the need to expand, integrate and modernize the North American high-capacity grid. ACEG brings together more than 75 organizations — including business, labor, consumer and environmental groups and other transmission supporters — to advocate for policies that recognize the benefits of a robust transmission grid.
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