Plenty of low-hanging fruit: How FERC can catalyze transmission infrastructure

Calling the history of transmission expansion anti-competitive is an understatement. In a forthcoming paper in the Energy Law Journal, Ari Peskoe, director of the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative, describes how local transmission monopolists maintain the status quo by capitalizing on FERC rules that insulate their projects from competitive pressures on the backs of captive ratepayers. Concluding that the “FERC regulated planning process is a protection racket,” he argues that FERC should reclaim its transmission agenda by expanding the role for third parties in transmission planning.

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