Clean Energy Transmission

The Clean Energy Grid for Everyone

Unlocking the grid’s full potential for wildlife and people

Electricity allows our communities to function; clean electricity allows our communities to thrive. Shifting the electric grid from fossil-based to healthier forms will require a massive coordinated effort that prioritizes a modern, resilient grid, and energy transmission. What exactly is transmission? Simply put, transmission moves energy. Renewable energy projects like wind and solar create the energy. Power lines and transmission towers then move that energy to the areas that need it. Building renewable and cleaner forms of energy generation means nothing if we do not have sufficient transmission infrastructure to carry it from its source to homes and businesses.

To safeguard our environment for future generations and provide affordable and reliable energy to our communities, electric transmission capacity must more than double within this decade. This infrastructure development must be resilient and reliable in the face of increasing severe weather events and will have significant, potential impacts on our lands, wildlife, cultural resources, and more.

The National Wildlife Federation is committed to ensuring that the values and perspectives of varied local communities, and the well-being of wildlife and our natural environment are central to accelerating America’s clean grid buildout.

Silhouette of person wearing hard hat with power lines in the background

Clean Energy Transmission Policy

To ensure everyone in the country has access to reliable, clean, and affordable electricity, we will need to roughly triple transmission capacity over the next two decades. The National Wildlife Federation’s transmission policy platform makes recommendations for how we can swiftly increase grid capacity while minimizing impacts on people and wildlife. Recommendations include avoiding wildlife impacts, creating local benefits, using the least harmful locations, and improving existing lines. Read the full report and recommendations here.

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Connecting the Clean Energy Grid

To protect our environment and our children’s future – and provide affordable, reliable renewable energy to communities – we have to modernize and expand our current electric transmission capacity.

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Preserving the Outdoors Legacy

Updating and expanding our grid requires your expertise. Whether you are an avid hiker, birder, hunter, angler, or just a lover of the outdoors, we need you to inform the clean energy transition to ensure it works for all of us.

Aerial view of transmission lines and roadway with video play button

Building a Resilient and Reliable Electric Power Grid

Veronica Ung-Kono, Clean Energy Transmission Policy Specialist & Staff Attorney at National Wildlife Federation, discusses the opportunity to build a resilient and reliable offshore grid.

Optimizing the Energy Grid

Building an Energy Grid that Works for People and Wildlife

Updating and expanding our nation’s energy grid will help clean up the air we breathe, cut electricity bills, and ensure the lights stay on during extreme weather. It is also essential if we want to hold off the worst of climate change. To do this, we need to triple our electricity transmission capacity within 20 years — and we are not on track to meet this goal.