Building transmission takes forever. The Biden administration is pushing to change that
DECEMBER 19, 2023
The SOO Green electric transmission project, a 350-mile high-voltage line between Mason City, Iowa, and Plano, Illinois, was proposed in 2018 to deliver renewable power and to better connect the nation’s two largest power markets. The project won approval from Iowa regulators this fall.
The developers of the line, which will link wind and solar power produced in the area overseen by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator with 65 million customers in PJM, the largest U.S. electric market, are using mostly existing rail rights of way and burying the wire underground to sidestep fights over land acquisition, visual aesthetics and other issues that have bedeviled other transmission projects.
