Coal and gas stock has been increasing steadily for the past several months. Alot of which, is the democrate's infrastructure bill and Manchins deal with the MVP.

Because, The problem with creating renewable energy: we still can’t get enough of it to users

>Sen. Joe Manchin spoke at the Global Clean Energy Conference in Pittsburgh weeks ago, protesters showed up dressed in red costumes to protest his support of a deal that would enable the Mountain Valley Pipeline and other proposals to increase fossil fuel production.

His side deal with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is certainly controversial and problematic. But there is a piece of his bill that’s absolutely critical to successfully addressing climate change: streamlining approval of transmission lines and siting of new renewable generation.

Without this reform, we cannot deploy wind and solar fast enough to meet our commitments to the world to cut our emissions 50% by 2030. Commitments that, if kept, will help our kids and grandkids inherit a liveable planet.

Transmission lines? Why are they so crucial?

Princeton energy modeling expert Jesse Jenkins examined pitfalls that could block efforts to meet our goal of 50% greenhouse gas reductions by 2030 and derail our efforts to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. His study identified four main roadblock areas. 1) Failure to deploy clean infrastructure fast enough; 2) Failure to mobilize capital investments in clean technologies; 3) Not In My Backyard opposition to clean infrastructure projects; and 4) Transforming the workforce fast enough. Roadblocks #1 and #3 require permitting reform for our electric grid.

This may sound technical, dull and boring, but it is a very important problem that needs greater awareness and attention. In the U.S., renewable energy projects currently take 5 to 8 years from concept to completion. When they’re done, we’re good, right? No. Transmission projects take even longer.

The Princeton study shows that we need from 400 to 750 gigawatts of new, utility-scale wind and solar capacity by 2030, which will require several thousand large-scale projects. In 2020, 225 GW of utility-scale solar and wind project proposals were added to the line of projects waiting for connection to U.S. grids, but only 25 GW of new capacity came online. While 2020 represents the largest single year expansion in U.S. history, canceled projects still outnumbered completed projects that year by 4 to 1. Dramatic improvements in both project timelines and completion rates are necessary.

Meanwhile, with demand for renewable energy expected to grow globally, any tightening of global wind and solar supply chains has the potential to further delay projects in the U.S. Renewable energy deployment depends on expanding high-voltage transmission capacity by about 60% by 2030 while improving its resilience.

Our current rate of building electric grid infrastructure is 1% per year. Transmission projects historically take 6 to 15 years to complete, and many are abandoned after failing to obtain permits and support from each state and community they cross. Current practice in transmission expansion is not enough to meet our 2030 goal.

We need more transmission lines in the right places, and this is currently really hard to do because, “if you want to build new transmission, then you need to win the approval of every state, county, city, and in some cases, landowner along the proposed route,” as Robinson Meyer from The Atlantic notes.

Mr. Manchin’s bill would have addressed this problem. Unfortunately, it also had provisions to speed fossil fuel permitting which would expand fossil fuel production — making it harder to reach our climate goals. We need permitting reform for power lines and rolling out renewable power generation.

While Mr. Manchin’s bill currently seems to be on hold, we still want to encourage Congress to continue working toward legislation that will help expedite building the clean energy economy, while supporting community engagement around potential impacts from infrastructure. Please call on Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey, as well as Reps. Conor Lamb and Mike Doyle to work on these important reforms.

And future democratic leaders