A new policy blueprint released July 12 by two long-time energy industry experts details recommendations for what could become one of U.S. President Joe Biden's most potent tools in the fight against climate change: a national electric transmission authority.

The 14-page blueprint builds on ideas included in a lengthier report released in February by the Energy Systems Integration Group, a nonprofit organization focused on electric transmission system planning. It was co-authored by Alison Silverstein, an independent consultant with previous experience at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Bob Zavadil, COO and co-founder of EnerNex Corp., a consulting and engineering firm specializing in emerging power technologies.

The paper follows the announcement in June of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework containing $73 billion in power infrastructure spending, with some of that money dedicated to a new "grid authority." However, a fact sheet released by the White House included few details about the grid authority.

Meanwhile, various congressional lawmakers are touting individual pieces of legislation designed to boost the buildout of the interregional electric transmission lines needed to accommodate a growing number of renewable energy resources.

In a joint interview, Silverstein and Zavadil said any solution that does not include a national electric transmission authority will likely fall short in meeting the challenge of doubling or even tripling U.S. transmission capacity by midcentury.

"All of the other proposals that are out there to reform transmission now are incremental," Silverstein said. "They want to fix pieces of it, but 'pieces' isn't going far enough."

The July 12 paper makes the case for a U.S. "macrogrid" that enables regions with different portfolios of renewable energy resources to share power with each another based on system conditions. As of October 2020, only seven high-voltage direct-current lines linked the U.S. Eastern and Western Interconnections. The lines offer just 1,320 MW of transfer capacity, while 700,000 MW of generating capacity exists in the Eastern Interconnection and 250,000 MW exist in the Western Interconnection.

The grid authority that Silverstein and Zavadil envisioned, preferably housed within the U.S. Energy Department, would begin with a clear mission outlined in a national transmission assignment.

"In other words, a national-scope transmission plan that follows a particular goal in terms of whether it's decarbonization, or grid reliability and security, or some combination of all of those things," Silverstein said.

The grid authority should also be tasked with developing a common set of planning tools and cost allocation methodologies to smooth over wide regional variations in those two areas, according to the blueprint.

Zavadil also stressed that the new grid authority should take a multigenerational view of transmission planning, which he said is far beyond the current view of FERC-jurisdictional regional grid operators. "The top-down, longer-term view is really important," Zavadil said.

The authors' paper also recommends structuring the grid authority in a way similar to a federal power agency or FERC, which functions as a quasi-judicial agency that acts based on the public record before it.

Another key recommendation is to ensure the grid authority has sufficient power to override state permit denials in instances where just one state is blocking a multidecade project, Silverstein said.

That element "is very important, but it shouldn't be easy," Silverstein said. "The benefit to the nation and the state itself and the region as a whole may justify overturning a state denial, but there needs to be a very clear process and justification for that."

Congressional negotiations over the $1.2 trillion bipartisan framework are still underway, with Democrats seeking to tie the package to a broader budget reconciliation measure that includes more money for climate change.

"To speak frankly, the odds are slim that what we have proposed is politically feasible, but that doesn't mean the elements of it aren't worth looking at and trying to move toward," Silverstein said.