America is going through document progress of electrical energy utilization, however the system that delivers electrical energy to our properties is outdated, more and more unreliable, and at present can not help the enlargement of renewable vitality wanted to guard birds. Because the U.S. works to modernize and develop the getting old electrical grid, constructing new transmission strains alongside highways can pace up the transmission allowing course of whereas additionally minimizing dangers to birds and their habitats.
We’re making progress. By way of Audubon’s work with the NextGen Highways Coalition, we’ve got helped move laws permitting transmission strains to be constructed alongside highways in Minnesota, Colorado, and most recently Iowa.
Audubon’s science reveals that many hen species are in danger from local weather impacts, making renewable vitality and expanded transmission capability important to defending hen populations over the long run. Our Birds and Transmission report explains that transmission strains are a important element of the electrical grid. These towering steel constructions assist transfer wind and photo voltaic vitality over lengthy distances from the place it’s generated to communities the place vitality is used.
Using current corridors for brand spanking new transmission strains is usually higher for birds than constructing on beforehand undeveloped land, often known as “greenfields.” As a result of these rights-of-way have already been cleared and managed for infrastructure like highways and railways, they scale back the danger of further habitat loss and fragmentation. This method can even assist scale back siting conflicts involving environmental and cultural issues, native communities, personal landowners, and state and federal jurisdictional points.
Progress in Iowa
Iowa’s latest coverage change marks a major milestone for a state that already generates about two-thirds of its electricity from wind and different renewable vitality sources—properly above the nationwide common. This new method positions Iowa to develop its grid whereas minimizing further impacts on wildlife habitat. Audubon employees performed a key position within the effort by serving to advance the coverage by way of Iowa Division of Transportation administrative rule updates and public remark durations in 2025, and the legislative effort in 2026, which Governor Kim Reynolds signed into regulation in April.
Doug Harr, president of Iowa Audubon, underscored the significance of the shift, noting that “Accountable vitality planning is essential to defending Iowa’s birds and ecosystems in the long term.” For years Harr has represented Iowa Audubon on committees to enhance new transmission line places, notably to guard birds from line collisions. “As our state leads the best way on renewables, this grid enlargement will assist ship that vitality to Iowans whereas minimizing habitat impacts.”
Momentum in Minnesota and Colorado
In 2024, Minnesota enacted legislation opening highways to co-location with high-voltage transmission, reversing a earlier prohibition by the Minnesota Division of Transportation (MnDOT). Audubon employees had been carefully concerned in drafting, lobbying for, and passing the laws, ensuring that hen habitat was thought-about.
Because the Minnesota laws handed into regulation, the Minnesota Public Utilities Fee (MN PUC) has begun asking utilities to elucidate how they’re contemplating freeway proper of the way, and the way they’re coordinating with MnDOT—an unimaginable shift in simply two years.
Additionally in 2024, the Colorado Electrical Transmission Authority (CETA) recognized the necessity for up to $4 billion in additional investment in transmission to make sure that the state’s energy grid can preserve tempo with demand. In response, Audubon labored as a part of the NextGen Highways Colorado coalition alongside vitality, transportation electrification, enterprise, and conservation pursuits to permit for extra coordinated and environment friendly planning between transportation officers and utilities. Ensuing from these efforts, the Colorado Division of Transportation is now an lively a part of the siting and allowing course of.
For Daly Edmunds, who represented Audubon within the Colorado coalition, co-locating alongside current transmission strains and freeway corridors is sensible on so many ranges, particularly to reduce habitat loss. “Having a regulation that prioritizes rights-of-way for transmission growth, after current utility corridors however earlier than new corridors, is a serious win for conservation in Colorado,” she says. “Hopefully this can have ripple results to different states.”
The Street Forward
Efforts on this entrance proceed and Audubon has just lately joined NextGen Highways coalitions in Oregon and Washington. We additionally encourage co-location alongside current transmission strains and freeway corridors as a part of our collaborative work with undertaking builders to make sure that transmission infrastructure is deliberate with birds and communities in thoughts. This consists of sharing science-based solutions for avoiding, minimizing, and offsetting potential impacts on birds and hen habitat. Co-location is among the many invaluable methods that ought to be thought-about with a view to scale back prices and safeguard important hen habitat.
Like these handed in Iowa, Minnesota, and Colorado, insurance policies on the state and federal stage can do extra to cut back limitations to co-location. States and the federal authorities could even go additional by permitting larger flexibility in using current freeway funding or creating particular incentives for well-sited transmission initiatives co-located alongside freeway corridors. Audubon is dedicated to sitting on the desk for these essential discussions because the U.S. more and more incorporates clear vitality to cut back carbon emissions and enhance grid resiliency.
