Eleven Western Governors Endorse 12,600-Mile WestTEC Transmission Plan, Launch PACT Permitting Task Force
- Policy & Markets Regulatory State & Local Regulation
Marin Holt
- 0
- 5 minutes read
- Transmission Target: 12,600+ miles by 2035
- States: 11 Western states
- Coalition: WestTEC (Western Transmission Expansion Coalition)
- New Task Force: PACT permitting coordination
Governors of 11 Western states endorsed the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition (WestTEC) roadmap on July 1, 2026, committing to add or upgrade more than 12,600 miles of high-voltage transmission line across the region by 2035. Meeting at the Western Governors’ Association gathering, the bipartisan group, led by Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo alongside the governors of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, also created a task force to speed interstate line approvals without new state or federal legislation.
The new Western Governors’ Transmission Permitting Alignment and Coordination Task Force, known as PACT, will align permitting timelines and requirements across state lines. Interstate transmission projects often stall for years when each state runs a separate review; the governors said coordinated permitting shortens that path while leaving each state’s authority intact.
Data-center growth is the pressure behind the push. Nevada alone faces roughly 22,000 MW of potential new electricity demand against a current system peak near 8,500 MW, Lombardo’s office said. NV Energy has proposed $3.2 billion in grid upgrades plus the $4.2 billion Greenlink West project, a 525-kilovolt line expected online in 2027.
“Nevada’s continued economic success depends on reliable, affordable energy. As our state expands and attracts new businesses, we need the infrastructure to support that growth.”
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo
WestTEC released its 10-year study in February 2026, identifying the 12,600-mile buildout needed to keep pace with load growth and connect new generation across the West. Regional analyses have pegged the associated cost near $60 billion, though the coalition’s roadmap itself does not attach a single price tag.
Critical Perspective
Eleven governors backed a 12,600-mile buildout by 2035 that regional analyses price near $60 billion, yet the roadmap attaches no dollar figure and PACT coordinates permitting without any new state or federal authority to compel it. Voluntary alignment is a weaker instrument than the binding tools that have already struggled: FERC’s Order 1920 transmission-planning rule drew immediate legal challenges from several states in 2024, and it carries real enforcement power that a governors’ task force does not. TransWest Express, a 732-mile line crossing four of these same Western states, spent roughly 18 years in permitting and review before breaking ground in 2023, most of it lost to exactly the interstate approval friction PACT promises to smooth. If a fully federally permitted line still needed nearly two decades, what makes a no-new-legislation coordination pledge the thing that hits a 2035 deadline?
Why It Matters
Transmission is the binding constraint on Western load growth: new data centers, factories and electrified transport cannot connect faster than the lines reach them. By backing a shared buildout target and a permitting task force, the governors signal that state-led coordination, not federal preemption, is their preferred route to faster grid expansion. Whether PACT shortens real project timelines will decide if the 2035 target holds.
