WASHINGTON (Might 13, 2024) – As we speak the Federal Power Regulatory Fee (FERC) announced its Grid Expansion Rule, which is able to assist modernize how the U.S. connects to and transmits energy alongside the nation’s grid. The rulemaking improves long-term regional transmission planning processes to help a clear power transition in methods which can be cost-effective for communities and useful for wildlife.
“The U.S. wants long-term transmission planning to construct a extra resilient and dependable grid that meets future power wants in ways in which profit individuals and wildlife,” stated Alice Madden, senior director of local weather technique on the Nationwide Audubon Society. “As Audubon’s Birds and Transmission report lays out, planning should take into account siting and land-use early within the course of with suggestions from impacted communities in addition to conservation organizations. It will help extra strategic regional planning and assist us quickly increase transmission capability to guard towards probably the most excessive impacts of local weather change whereas additionally avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating impacts on chook habitats and native communities.”
In 2022, Audubon submitted joint feedback as a part of the Conservation and Renewable Power (CARE) coalition in response to FERC’s Discover of Proposed Rulemaking, emphasizing the necessity for a powerful, clear rule that responsibly addresses environmental and power justice planning and siting standards.
Improved regional planning is required to deal with regulatory hurdles and assist streamline and speed up the transmission buildout. In response to a study from the Department of Energy, the USA should double its current regional transmission capability to fulfill its clear power objectives by 2035. Audubon’s report, Birds and Transmission: Building the Grid Birds Need, notes that growing transmission capability is required to help the clear power transition and keep away from the worst impacts of local weather change for birds and other people. The report shares finest practices grounded in science for tips on how to reduce collision and habitat impact-related dangers to birds.
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About Audubon
The Nationwide Audubon Society is a nonprofit conservation group that protects birds and the locations they want as we speak and tomorrow. We work all through the Americas in the direction of a future the place birds thrive as a result of Audubon is a robust, various, and ever-growing drive for conservation. Audubon has greater than 700 employees working throughout the hemisphere and greater than 1.5 million lively supporters. North America has misplaced three billion birds since 1970, and greater than 500 chook species are liable to extinction throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Birds act as early warning methods in regards to the well being of our surroundings, they usually inform us that birds – and our planet – are in disaster. Collectively as one Audubon, we’re working to change the course of local weather change and habitat loss, resulting in more healthy chook populations and reversing present traits in biodiversity loss. We do that by implementing on-the-ground conservation, partnering with native communities, influencing public and company coverage, and constructing group. Be taught extra at www.audubon.org and on Fb, Twitter and Instagram @audubonsociety.
Media Contact: Megan Moriarty, megan.moriarty@audubon.org