America is betting on a nuclear comeback, driven by a new generation of advanced reactors with lower capital costs and significant potential for economies of scale. Many of these reactors, however, require specialized fuel that has led the government to pour billions into a domestic supply chain. To ensure these investments pay off, federal officials should proactively eliminate artificial procurement barriers and permitting hurdles which threaten to stall nuclear fuel independence.
The surge in data centers with energy needs equivalent to small cities has put a spotlight on the new transmission infrastructure required to serve these customers. But recent action from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), America’s top energy market regulator, takes aim at a more basic question in this rapid buildout: who pays for that new steel in the ground, and when? Right now, the rules that determine cost allocation are opaque enough that customers who never asked for those upgrades can end up footing the bill. That is the cost-shifting problem the Commission just put a target on for transmission utilities across the country.
The surge in AI and data centers risks driving up electricity demand faster than we can deploy the power lines needed to carry it. The high-voltage transmission that this expansion, and economic growth more broadly, relies on is slow and expensive to develop, and stuck in an outdated regulatory system that often hands the work to local utilities without competition. New analysis from the R Street Institute shows what this costs us, finding that, when transmission projects are open to competitive bidding, they get built cheaper and faster.
Two bills recently passed by the U.S. House—H.R.5631, the Geothermal Energy Advancement Act, and H.R.1687, the CLEAN Act—take direct aim at this regulatory dysfunction. Together, they represent a consequential step toward realizing the full extent of the geothermal opportunity as the legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration.
America needs more electric transmission, the high-voltage lines that carry electrons from power plants to communities nationwide. But under today’s policies, building those lines takes too long and costs too much. Without a substantial expansion in transmission capacity, the country is at risk of rising energy costs, a less reliable electric grid, and stymied global leadership in AI.
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