What should a government prioritize in the modern landscape of electric infrastructure? Saving tax and ratepayers money, or maximizing the potential for resilience against damage and outages?
In Iowa, lawmakers feel the choice is one or the other. State legislators are debating a bill that would offer a right of first refusal to in-state operators for future transmission infrastructure projects. The bill has a past life - the state passed a similar law in 2020, but the state's supreme court found that the elimination of competition in the transmission infrastructure market harmed taxpayers; however, lawmakers and in-state companies feel those familiar with the Iowan landscape and environmental realities, as well as the power system they're operating on, can better prepare the state's power system and build resilience.
The impetus for requiring competition would be to save tax and ratepayers money; however, in a contemporary reality of aging infrastructure and more extreme weather events, a right-of-first-refusal law could, in the eyes of some, get state energy customers the best bang for their buck in upgrading the state's transmission infrastructure.
How this law shakes out will have a most immediate impact on the state's budget. Competition is, of course, the preferred method in a capitalist structure; however, locking in a handful of trusted contractors and companies to deal with some of the state's most critical infrastructure could go further the ultimate goal of reinforcing and modernizing its power system.