This week’s knowledgeable guest comes to us from the Niskanen Center. Rachel Levine, the Senior Transmission Policy Analyst for Niskanen Center’s Climate and Energy team, gives us a quite digestible deep dive into transmission policy in the U.S. which, spoiler, is kinda crazy and sorely in need of updating and streamlining if we as a nation expect to meet 21st and 22nd century needs.
In other words, you like to have a charged phone and laptop? Lights to read? A TV to entertain? We need to figure this out, and she is here to educate and guide us.
Rachel leads work on high-voltage transmission development in the U.S. with a research focus on interregional transmission planning, marketplace governance, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) technologies, and federal permitting reform. Prior to joining Niskanen, Levine managed advocacy initiatives on behalf of utility clients as well as government entities in the U.S. and abroad. She holds a B.S. in Environmental and Ecological Engineering from Purdue University and a M.S. in Civil Engineering from The University of Nebraska.