Washington boasts some of the most ambitious and stringent clean energy laws in the country. But there’s far too little development of a greener electricity grid to show for them. Construction of transmission — new and upgraded high-voltage power lines to carry clean energy to homes and businesses that need it — has been painfully slow relative to other states. Utility experts say blackouts are likely in a few years without meaningful progress building infrastructure.
In the waning days of the legislative session, Senate Bill 6355, sponsored by Sen. Victoria Hunt, D-Issaquah, could help. Hunt’s bill would finally create a Washington state transmission authority within the Commerce Department, a dedicated entity to help plan, coordinate and finance long-distance electric lines.
Washington state’s Clean Energy Transformation Act, passed in 2019 by majority Democrats, calls for a carbon-free electric grid by 2045. But three-fourths of Washington state’s transmission lines are operated by the Bonneville Power Administration — a self-funded federal agency that does not answer to Olympia. If it cannot keep up with expectations of the law, lawmakers must find another way to build out the transmission network — or scale back those ambitions.
The state stepping into a bigger role in transmission provides direction and leadership within a patchwork system of generators, operators and utilities that span Washington and the West. The needs aren’t trivial. A study by the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition estimates that Western states — including Washington — will need to build 12,600 miles of transmission, at a cost of $60 billion, in the next decade alone.
Other states, including New Mexico, have formed transmission authorities that have driven billions of dollars into hundreds of new miles of transmission. Those investments are critical to modernizing the grid and unlocking the potential of new generation sources like wind and solar power, delivering their energy to the places that need it most.
“Without those transmission lines, we simply cannot have the clean electricity we need to power our society,” testified Kelly Jiang, a member of the Issaquah City Council, at a hearing on Hunt’s bill.
Skeptics, including Republicans in the Legislature, argue creating another government agency won’t solve siting and permitting delays that hold back construction of new transmission lines. They raise valid concerns but fail to realize a transmission authority could also bring focus that can help drive the reform that shortens delays.
Washingtonians are adding electric cars, heat pumps and other electrical demands to the grid faster than utilities and grid operators can expand it. Add to the mix power-hungry data centers and a sunsetting of fossil-fuel generation and you have a recipe for an energy crisis. Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. has predicted a growing threat of blackouts by 2030. Those events are simply unacceptable — and, in many cases, life-threatening to those who depend on electricity to power medical devices. The Legislature needs to act, and Hunt’s bill is a good place to start.
