In a statement, Paul Cicio, Chair of the Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition, said: “Electricity price inflation continues to outpace overall CPI growth placing serious financial strain on homeowners and businesses. While Congress is moving forward with the Inflation Reduction Act to bring relief to Americans, even more could be saved if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) embraces electricity transmission competition.

“Unfortunately, FERC is poised to unleash electricity inflation for decades by rejecting transmission competition, according to a notice of proposed rulemaking, issued in April. Electricity transmission competition is a proven anti-inflationary tool. Competition drives down costs every time and every-where it is allowed to work.”

Competitively bid electricity transmission projects have been shown to reduce costs to consumers by up to 40% according to The Brattle Group.[1] The U.S. will need to spend $2.1 trillion on transmission to reach its net zero goals by 2050 according to Princeton University meaning that electricity transmission competition could save as much as $840 billion for Americans.[2] The electricity price index continued to increase far outpacing the CPI, and the indices for gasoline and natural gas. Even as energy commodity prices drop, the savings are not being passed on to consumers and in fact, rates are going up because of monopoly incumbent utilities.

###

[1] Brattle Group: Cost Savings Offered by Competition in Electric Transmission, https://www.brattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/16726_cost_savings_offered_by_competition_in_electric_transmission.pdf

[2] NET-ZERO AMERICA: Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts, Princeton University, https://netzeroamerica.princeton.edu/?explorer=year&state=national&table=2020&limit=200

About the Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition

The Electricity Transmission Competition Coalition (ETCC) is a broad-based, nation-wide coalition committed to increasing competition in America’s electricity transmission infrastructure. We advocate for common-sense policies and solutions that result in competitively priced transmission projects, which reduce energy costs for all ratepayers – from large manufacturers to residential consumers. The ETCC represents a diverse group of more than 70 companies and organizations from all 50 states, including manufacturing groups, retail electric consumers, state consumer advocates, public power representatives, think tanks, and non-incumbent transmission developers.

For more information, visit: www.electricitytransmissioncompetitioncoalition.org.

Press Contact:
Julian Graham
jgraham@signaldc.com