AI Summary
5 min readIn 2013, the United States built nearly 4,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. Over the past few years, we have averaged hundreds of miles annually. This collapse in transmission buildout is the backdrop for a specific project that reveals why the grid is becoming the rate limiter for AI growth and why upward pressure on electricity prices will likely persist. The Mid-Atlantic Reliability Line (MARL)—a roughly 100-mile, billion-dollar high-voltage line planned to run from southwestern Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia through Maryland and West Virginia—was approved by PJM in 2022 to address reliability needs driven by growing data center load. But by the time developer NextEra began seeking state approvals in 2025, the ground had shifted: ChatGPT had launched, data center demand had exploded, electricity bills had become a political flashpoint, and hyperscalers had signed a White House pledge to pay for their own power. Now state consumer advocates are asking a question that threatens to unravel the entire project: why should ratepayers cover a line that may primarily serve data centers in someone else's state?
The cost allocation conundrum
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:07) **The Transmission Paradox** - Shayle Kann introduces the episode, framing the core problem: transmission is failing not just due to NIMBYism, but because of a broken cost allocation model exacerbated by AI-driven data center load growth.
- 2 (01:58) **The Marl Line Case Study** - Maeve Vals of Latitude Media is introduced as the guest to explain how the Mid-Atlantic Reliability Line (Marl) became a flashpoint for this issue.
- 3 (04:13) **What is Marl?** - Maeve defines the planned 100+ mile high-voltage line in PJM, from Pennsylvania to Virginia, approved in 2022 to address reliability and growing data center load in Northern Virginia.
- 4 (05:28) **The Timeline Trap** - The episode highlights the critical delay: approved in 2022 before ChatGPT, but state-level siting began in 2025, after the AI boom, hyperscaler pledges, and a political backlash against data centers.
- 5 (07:37) **The Broken Cost Allocation Model** - Maeve explains the historical FERC-approved model that spreads costs across PJM, assuming even growth. This breaks when load growth is hyper-concentrated, as it now is in Virginia.
- 6 (08:57) **The Hyperscaler Pledge as a Cudgel** - The March 2025 White House ratepayer protection pledge, where hyperscalers promised to pay for their own grid upgrades, is now being cited by state consumer advocates to argue Virginia should pay for Marl.
- 7 (10:01) **The Core Fight: Who Pays?** - States argue data centers should cover the costs, not regional ratepayers. Maryland is leading the charge, petitioning FERC to assign data center-driven transmission costs to the specific utility zone (Dominion).
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Electric transmission development is notoriously difficult, and these days, NIMBYism gets the brunt of the blame. But as data center loads surge and electricity prices climb, there’s a new roadblock – the messy world of multi-state cost allocation.
The Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) — a planned 100-mile, $960 million transmission line stretching across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia — was approved by PJM in 2022 under standard rules that spread costs across the entire region. But that plan was made before ChatGPT took off and data center forecasts shot upwards.
Fast forward four years, and now state consumer advocates are asking why local ratepayers should foot the bill for an infrastructure project designed to feed data centers in northern Virginia.
In this episode, Shayle sits down with Maeve Allsup, senior reporter at Latitude Media, to unpack her reporting on the project. They dive into how the rise of generative AI has disrupted traditional grid planning and explore why this challenge has proven to be such an impactful rate limiter for the AI boom.
[Correction: In this episode, Shayle and Maeve refer to MARL as the Mid-Atlantic Reliability Line. The correct name is the Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link. We regret the error.]
Shayle and Maeve discuss topics like:
- How a project approved in 2022 hit a vastly different policy and regulatory landscape by the time it reached state dockets
- Why data center growth breaks the historic assumption that regional transmission costs eventually "even out" between states
- How the Ratepayer Protection Pledge — a voluntary commitment signed by tech hyperscalers at the White House — is being harnessed by state advocates as a cudgel to demand data centers pay for grid upgrades
- Why the United States has gone from building thousands of miles of transmission a decade ago to just hundreds today
- How the intersection of local opposition and confusion over utility tariffs is delaying grid buildouts
Resources
- Latitude Media: How the Ratepayer Protection Pledge became a transmission hurdle in PJM
- Latitude Media: FERC to grid operators: Connect large loads to transmission faster
- Catalyst: Looking for a turnaround in transmission