# Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act of 2023
This bill accelerates development of electricity transmission infrastructure and clean energy projects while ensuring affected communities have a voice in the process. The legislation addresses transmission bottlenecks, streamlines permitting, and strengthens environmental justice protections.
**Transmission and Grid Improvements**: The bill requires regional transmission planning to identify projects that efficiently serve broad areas, changes how interconnection costs are allocated to prevent individual projects from bearing all upgrade costs, and encourages use of grid-enhancing technologies like advanced conductors and energy storage. It gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission new authority to site major interstate transmission lines over 1,000 megawatts and establishes a 6 percent federal tax credit for qualifying transmission line investments.
**Clean Energy on Public Lands**: The bill sets a goal for the federal government to permit 60 gigawatts of wind, solar, and geothermal energy on federal lands by 2030 and 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 (increasing to 50 gigawatts by 2035). It establishes priority areas for renewable energy development and creates a conservation fund from energy revenues to protect wildlife habitat and recreation access.
**Environmental Justice and Community Protections**: The bill significantly expands protections for low-income and minority communities. It requires environmental reviews to assess impacts on these communities, mandates community engagement through multilingual hearings and notices, allows communities to sue for civil rights violations, and requires project sponsors to negotiate community benefits agreements providing funding for local benefits.
**Permitting and Staffing**: The bill streamlines permitting processes, authorizes FERC to hire additional staff, and creates an online permitting portal to track environmental documents. It requires federal agencies to establish community engagement officers and funds capacity building for affected communities.
**Fiscal Impact**: The bill authorizes approximately $2.8 billion in new appropriations across various programs through 2029.
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