DOE cancels 3 national transmission corridors, citing ‘Green New Scam’

The Department of Energy has scrapped three planned power line corridors that the Biden administration had picked out in 2024. These "National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors" were federal designations meant to speed up construction of major transmission lines by unlocking government financing and letting federal regulators step in on permitting when state agencies were slow or unwilling to act. The cancelled projects were the Lake Erie-Canada Corridor, the Southwestern Grid Connector Corridor, and the Tribal Energy Access Corridor, which was proposed to run largely through South Dakota. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the designations were tied to a "climate-alarmist agenda" that raised costs and hurt reliability.

The corridors had been meant to ease congestion on the grid, including support for reliability in the mid-Atlantic PJM region and better connections between the Southwest Power Pool and WestConnect regions in the West. A cattle producers' group welcomed the cancellation, citing concerns the lines would have crossed grazing and haying land. Environmental groups disagreed, arguing the move gives up a chance to reduce grid congestion, which they say drives up electricity costs for ratepayers.

This doesn't change any home energy programs or rebates directly. It's a signal about the pace of new large-scale transmission construction, which affects how quickly grid capacity grows in the affected regions over the long run. There's nothing here that changes what's available to you as a homeowner right now.