Last year, we dug into the messy, high-voltage saga of America’s electric grid in our post Powering the Future. That piece covered the spaghetti of transmission lines, state-federal standoffs, and the Biden administration’s push for a cleaner, more connected system. Now, Congress is back at it — but with a sharply different flavor. Meet H.R. 1047, officially titled the Guaranteeing Reliability through the Interconnection of Dispatchable Power Act — or, for brevity’s sake, the GRID Power Act.
The bill just squeaked through the House along partisan lines (216–206) in September, pushed by a Republican majority keen to rethink how we bring new power onto the grid. If it survives the Senate and becomes law, it could change the way new generators — especially those prized for reliability rather than carbon credentials — get connected to the electric system.
So, for this month's IssueVoter bill, continuing the energy theme we looked at last month with the Fuel Emissions Freedom Act, let's take a look at this new approach to connectivity. Read the full IssueVoter analysis here.
From Interconnection Backlog to “Dispatchable First”
At its core, the GRID Power Act takes aim at one of the biggest headaches in modern power development: the interconnection queue. Right now, projects — whether a solar farm, gas plant, or wind array — wait years for approval to plug into the grid. H.R. 1047 orders the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to rewrite the rules so that “dispatchable power” projects — resources that can predictably show up and keep the lights on when needed — jump closer to the front of the line.
Representative Troy Balderson (R-OH), the bill’s lead sponsor, put it bluntly:
“With American power demand far outpacing our ability to generate more electricity, our grid is heading toward a reliability crisis … The GRID Power Act clears the path for the most critical projects, giving grid operators the tools they need to add more dispatchable baseload power — lowering costs for households and businesses while keeping America’s grid reliable.”
That’s a policy pivot. Under Biden-era FERC and Department of Energy guidance, the emphasis leaned toward clearing the way for renewables and battery storage. The idea was to push clean energy through the queue and accelerate decarbonization. The new Republican-led approach reframes the priority around reliability — think gas turbines, hydro, nuclear, or even advanced geothermal — not necessarily the cleanest megawatts, but the ones you can call at midnight during a polar vortex.
Why This Fight Won’t Go Quietly
Electric grid politics have always been a tug-of-war between two fears: the fear of blackouts and the fear of climate inertia. After California’s rolling outages in 2001 and 2020, after the Texas freeze of 2021, and after a string of transmission shortfalls flagged by NERC, Congress keeps circling back to “how do we keep the lights on?” Past legislative efforts — from the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to more recent infrastructure packages — tried to force modernization, add resilience standards, and support transmission build-out. But none have fully solved the backlog or the delicate dance between clean energy expansion and dependable baseload.
This time, trade groups for conventional generators are cheering. Todd Snitchler, CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association, said the bill “appropriately requires stakeholder feedback and FERC approval before any changes are made, ensuring that all viewpoints are heard,” while also giving operators “tools to address current or future reliability concerns.”
But climate and clean-energy advocates are uneasy. Democrats warned during floor debate that the measure could allow fossil fuel plants to cut the line ahead of shovel-ready wind and solar. As one Democratic floor speech put it, the bill “opens the door for projects that lock in carbon emissions to bypass long-planned clean energy.”
H.R. 1047 doesn’t hide its priorities: grid resilience and resource adequacy first, carbon later. It requires FERC to produce final rules within 180 days, with ongoing five-year reviews — an aggressive timeline meant to push operators to act fast.
The International Voltage Check
Globally, others are facing the same balancing act. Europe, for instance, sped renewable integration but hit bottlenecks in transmission build-out, sparking emergency subsidies for gas plants when wind faltered. Australia’s regulators have also scrambled to shore up “firming” power capacity as coal exits the scene. The GRID Power Act borrows from those anxieties — betting that prioritizing dependable generation now avoids brittle networks later.
What It Means If It Passes
If enacted, HR 1047 would likely shorten wait times for gas and nuclear projects and slow the current queue-dominance of wind and solar. Utilities and regional grid operators could file proposals with FERC to reshuffle interconnection priorities, but they’d need to justify how doing so boosts reliability. Developers banking on Biden-era transmission and interconnection reforms may need to rethink timelines and financing models.
For businesses and advocates tracking energy policy, this is not just inside baseball. It could alter the power mix for decades, influence electricity pricing, and shift incentives for private investment. It also hints at a broader policy swing: the new Republican administration seems far less willing to treat carbon reduction as the primary grid metric and far more inclined to judge every new megawatt by its “dispatchability.”
The Road Ahead
Will the GRID Power Act become law? It seems unlikely. Given the universal opposition to the bill in the House it's hard to see enough Senate Democrats backing it to get it over the line. Having said that, from a Democratic perspective this isn't a terrible bill. Certainly not as terrible as some others (I'm looking at you, Fuel Emissions Freedom Act). Democratic senators' soul searching around why Democrats are so historically unpopular could lead them to the conclusion that hard-line stances regarding climate and renewables don't sit well with Americans struggling with ever increasing energy bills. And that might be enough to sway some of them to back the GRID Power Act. Hard to say. But the conversation itself marks a departure from the Biden-era “build clean fast” mantra. If last year was about powering the future, this year’s mood is about keeping the lights on tonight.
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