Input Stories

Without additions and improvements to America’s electricity infrastructure, energy projects will slow and reliability may be impacted, the NAM told Congress this week.

What’s going on: “Manufacturing growth and investment in the United States depends on ensuring access to affordable, abundant and reliable energy,” the NAM said to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy Subcommittee ahead of a Wednesday hearing on electricity transmission policy.

• But “there is a growing recognition across industrial, commercial and residential electricity customers that there must be additional investments in the necessary infrastructure to reliably deliver energy to factories and shop floors.”
• If these investments are not made, the consequences will be dire for ratepayers, manufacturers and the U.S. economy in general.

What should be done: There are steps legislators can take to shore up the grid and keep a steady flow of power to U.S. customers and manufacturers:

• Responsibly build and interconnect more transmission and distribution lines.
• Improve and deploy more battery storage.
• Increase and maintain the manufacturing of (and the supply chains for) essential grid components and assets, such as transformers.
• Enhance grid performance via improving existing infrastructure.
• Enact comprehensive permitting reform legislation to streamline the construction of all energy infrastructure.

The final say: “It is critical that policymakers work in bipartisan fashion to enact durable and lasting permitting and transmission policies that will ensure manufacturers in the United States can remain competitive in global markets,” NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen and NAM Senior Director of Energy and Resources Policy Michael Davin said.