Overview
- Governors from 11 Western states created the Transmission Permitting Alignment and Coordination Task Force, known as PACT, and on Tuesday signed a memorandum endorsing the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition’s WestTEC roadmap to study and plan new transmission.
- The WestTEC blueprint calls for about $60 billion to add or upgrade roughly 12,600 miles of high‑voltage lines over the next decade to relieve bottlenecks and expand capacity across state lines.
- State leaders say the push responds to projected 15–30% growth in electricity demand from AI, electric vehicles and new industry and to an aging grid much of which was built more than 60 years ago.
- Officials tied the plan to near‑term risks after recent wildfire‑related preemptive shutoffs and pointed to local technology milestones, including a DOE‑authorized small modular reactor reaching zero‑power criticality and large geothermal projects, as reasons to speed transmission.
- The governors are pressing federal agencies and Congress for compressed permitting timelines and statutory reforms but face uncertainty because past attempts to overhaul permitting and environmental review have stalled in Washington.