Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG) today released its new High-Capacity Transmission Permitting Tracker, a publicly accessible tool that shows the state and federal permitting status for major planned transmission projects nationwide, as policymakers grapple with years-long delays in building new grid infrastructure.
America’s electric transmission system faces lengthy, fragmented permitting processes that can stretch critical grid upgrades across years and multiple agencies. Modernizing that process is essential to unlock new lines that keep power reliable and affordable as demand surges from AI, industry and electrification.
The High-Capacity Transmission Permitting Tracker provides the first centralized snapshot of permitting progress for roughly 200 large-scale, high-voltage transmission lines across the United States. Each project record includes permitting stage, responsible agencies, relevant dockets and core project attributes, such as voltage, length, planning authority and anticipated in-service date.
“Transmission projects in the U.S. can spend years moving through fragmented state and federal permitting processes,” said Christina Hayes, executive director of ACEG. “By bringing transparency to where the nation’s largest grid projects stand, this tool gives policymakers and stakeholders a clearer picture of what’s moving, what’s stalled and where there are real opportunities to improve.”
The Permitting Tracker was informed by the hard-won lessons of past transmission efforts that underscored just how opaque and protracted the process can be, including projects like the Boardman-to-Hemingway line, SunZia line and other major high-voltage proposals that faced years of legal, regulatory and siting challenges across multiple jurisdictions. Although those projects show progress in permitting processes, those lengthy experiences revealed how even projects critical to reliability and affordability can stall without clear visibility into where decisions sit, which agencies are involved and what hurdles remain.
The permitting tracker was developed by ACEG in partnership with Grid Strategies and builds on the planned transmission project database published by Our Grid Future, a project by Horizon Energy Systems in association with Great Plains Institute. The tracker’s permitting status information has been integrated into the Our Grid Future interactive map, allowing users to explore projects geographically and by permitting stage.
Users can display projects by permitting status to see which lines have not yet entered permitting, are currently under review or have completed both major state and federal permitting steps.
Because the underlying dataset captures planned transmission lines, many projects have not yet begun permitting. ACEG and Grid Strategies will update the tracker regularly as new projects enter review and permitting milestones are reached. Over time, ACEG plans to use the tracker to highlight case studies and emerging patterns that can inform ongoing discussions about transmission planning and permitting modernization.
News item from Americans for a Clean Energy Grid
